A Spark in the Darkness - Part 2b - Destiny's Path - Serving Years
by Serina562
Summary: Devoting her body and soul to her master's service, the former farmgirl finds herself caught between a rancor and a sarlacc. And her own life is the least that is at stake. DISCLAIMER: STAR WARS DOES NOT BELONG TO ME, IT BELONGS TO GEORGE LUCAS, LUCASFILM, AND DISNEY. THANK YOU.
1. Prologue

**Prologue III**

(8 ABY)

 _"... and here we enter the long hallway leading toward the White Room, where the ceremony will take place about 1100 local time." The reporter halted for a short moment and directed the attention of the viewers toward the paneling of the prestigious corridor leading into the Cantham House. "As you might know, the wood used to panel this hallway is uwa and was indigenous to_ Alderaan _. The large slabs you see here are probably the last oddments of this precious wood after the destruction of its planet of origin. Now let us proceed to the White Room where the ceremony..."_

As the documentary droned on, Serina turned down the volume and called toward the kitchen, "Hey, if you want to watch the wedding, you should hurry up. It's going to start soon."

"Coming!" A large pitcher filled with strongly diluted Cashok nectar in one hand and a stack of empty cups in the other, her fourteen-year-old daughter marched out of the kitchen with Marisa close on her heels, carrying a platter with various snacks and cut-up fruits. With a quick motion, Serina gathered her three-year-old son into her lap to get him out of the way of his sister and her aunt.

By the time, the broadcast out of _Coruscant_ had switched from the documentary to the live transmission, the foursome had settled down comfortably on the large couch. As he popped a handful of bang-corn into his mouth, Ben started giggling at the weird melting sensation it produced.

"Shush!" Dara chided her brother, "it's starting."

With a broad smile on her face, Serina ruffled her son's hair and pulled him into her lap. Then she turned the volume up another notch.

 _"... and here comes the bride. What a sight to behold! The dress she is wearing ..."_

Together with billions of other viewers across the galaxy, they watched the beautiful _Alderaanian_ princess walk down the red carpet of the central aisle toward the dashing onetime smuggler, general and hero of the rebellion, expectantly awaiting his bride whom he had fought for only little over a month prior on _Dathomir._ After Leia had taken up her position across from her soon-to-be husband, the camera took a quick pan of the audience in search of the missing best man. Moments later, it located the Jedi, as he entered the large hall through one of the many doors in the far back.

"That's Luke Skywalker, isn't it, mother?"

"Yes, Dara, that is him," Serina confirmed.

"Is it true, that the princess is his sister?"

"Yes, his twin sister even," her mother expounded.

 _"... Chief of State Mon Mothma will now address the bridal couple..."_

"Mother, you know what Olic told me last week in school?"

"No, Dara," Serina gave an exasperated sigh, as Ben started to giggle again. "What did he tell you?"

"That he heard somewhere that Darth Vader was Luke's father."

"Aha," her mother commented with a raised eyebrow, "is that so?"

When nothing else was forthcoming, her daughter pressed on, "And? Do you think it's true?"

For a long moment, Serina just gazed at her daughter, considering where this questioning might be leading to. Finally, she nodded. "Yes, he was Luke's father. But let's watch the program now, ok?"

 _"... Yarna D'al' Gargan is now going to perform the Dance of the Seventy Violet Veils before the couple exchanges the marriage vows..."_

As the _Askajian_ dancer started into her performance, Serina could sense her daughter brooding over yet another question. Ben had just grabbed a handful of Pandathan munchsticks and was busy stuffing them into his mouth. When he felt her looking down at him, he reached up and held the last one of them into her face. With a smile, she accepted his "gift". Still busy chewing the slightly salty, finger-sized pastry, she turned toward her daughter with an inviting expression on her face.

Dara didn't have to be asked twice. "If Darth Vader was their father, then who was their mother?"

"Well," Serina mumbled and hurried to swallow the rest of the munchstick, "many records from the Clone Wars were destroyed during the first years of the Empire. But from what I discovered, her name was Padmé Amidala. For many years, she served as senator of the _Chommell_ sector."

"Was she as pretty as Leia?" Dara mused, more to herself than her mother.

Serina nodded. "I did once see a picture of her. She was really beautiful and, from what I read, quite intelligent. As a matter of fact, when she was your age, she was elected Queen of _Naboo_ and ruled for two terms before becoming a senator."

"Whoa!" Dara was impressed. "What happened to her?"

"She died in childbirth at the age of twenty-seven. Luke and Leia never got to know her."

It would take her daughter some time to digest this information, so, Serina turned back toward the viewscreen. Apparently, the dance had already ended some moments earlier and the couple was now in the process of exchanging their marriage vows. Finally, Mon Mothma concluded the ceremony:

 _"Now that you both have committed yourselves to one another through the vows you have just taken and the receiving of these rings, I now pronounce you husband and wife. May the Force be always with you. You may now kiss the bride."_

As the Chief of State presented the newlyweds to the assembled guests, thunderous applause and cheers filled the large ceremonial chamber of the Cantham House. Then everybody arose and a long line of well-wishers formed, accompanied by the remarks of the reporter as he informed the viewers of their names and positions as well as the presents they had brought.

"Mother?" Dara's curiosity had apparently not been satisfied quite yet.

Serina heaved another sigh and turned back to her daughter. "Go ahead," she prompted her with a smile, "what do you want to know now?"

"Padmé was a good person, wasn't she?"

Serina nodded in confirmation. "And brave and brilliant and selfless and many other things, too."

"Then how could she want to have a child with somebody as evil as a Sith Lord?" Dara's lack of understanding was quite palpable.

Serina lifted Ben from her lap and handed him to her aunt. "Could you please take him to his room and have him change into something clean?"

"Sure." Marisa grabbed the three-year-old, careful to avoid his sticky fingers. Moments later, Serina was alone with her daughter. As she turned down the volume to a mere low mumbling, she considered what she could and should reveal to her inquisitive child. Although Luke Skywalker had never tried to hide the truth about his father, it was by far not common knowledge yet who the much hated Sith Lord had once been. And yet, there was really no reason to tell her daughter anything but the truth about the man who had become her destiny.

"There is something you need to know about Darth Vader. He was not always a Sith Lord. There was a time, when he was a famous Jedi knight. For many years, he fought in the Clone Wars as one of the Jedi generals. It was during that time, that he married Padmé..."

"But, mother, weren't the Jedi forbidden to marry?" her daughter interrupted her.

Serina nodded. "True enough, but it didn't stop him. He truly loved her. Love can cause you to sometimes do things others might consider quite stupid." And didn't she know that only too well!

"What was his name?" But before Serina could even start to answer, her daughter drew the right conclusion, "Was he Anakin Skywalker? Is that where Luke got his name from?"

"Yes, that used to be his name until he fell to the dark side. But you know, at the very end of his life, he cast off the chains of the dark side and turned again into Anakin Skywalker when he saved his son from the Emperor."

Dara nodded thoughtfully. "I remember now. After you returned to _Taanab_ , you told us that Vader had killed the Emperor and not Luke Skywalker as many claimed. Hmm..."

Serina could sense the thoughts whirling through her daughter's mind. What conclusion would she come up with next?

"Anakin ... that has got to be a pretty common name, right, mother? Wasn't our father's name Anakin as well?"


	2. Treasure Hunt

**Treasure Hunt**

(8 BBY)

 _What a waste of time_ , Serina thought as she sat waiting in the farthest back corner of the dark, smoky cantina. Her contact hadn't shown up yet for the past two days and, as far as she was concerned, he probably never would. _If he doesn't show up tonight I will have to go and find him!_ Disgusted with the thought of having to search _Thila's_ settlements and perhaps its underworld for somebody she didn't even know what he looked like, Serina took another long gulp of her lumin ale.

She knew she really shouldn't complain. After all, it had been her own suggestion. More than ten years had passed since the great Jedi Purge had started and still there were countless Jedi artifacts dispersed across the galaxy. Although the Empire had discovered a fair amount of them along with the Jedi who had been eliminated, an even greater amount was assumed to have disappeared into private collections or to still be buried in some undiscovered Jedi facilities. What Tiron Mors had discovered in the forgotten _Telosian_ Academy had again driven that point home. If any of those artifacts would fall into the wrong hands - especially force-sensitive hands - they could engender the kind of trouble that was least appreciated by the Emperor.

But it was tedious to search for these items. So, shortly after their return from _Telos_ , Serina had made a quite simple suggestion and had been more than surprised when Vader had tasked her with the implementation thereof, even so she had been pretty certain that it would work. She had spent a good portion of the months right before her graduation and most of the time since then with following up on the leads, that her widely placed rumors had given rise to. And the fair share of collected objects had proved her method as quite effective. Besides that, she was expected to pass any information she might discover in her search regarding fugitive Jedi to her master. And so far, she had dutifully obeyed her orders. What he did with this information was none of her business, so she didn't ask.

But of course, her method wasn't foolproof. Some efforts had been wasted and she was slowly getting the feeling that this time fell exactly into that category.

It was still early in the evening and only few customers hung around the bar at the other end of the room. She recognized two of them from the night before, the one a dirty, sickly looking individual, humanoid, but with a weird green taint to his skin, at least where it was visible under the brown layer of filth, and the other a dark-skinned human, barely older than herself. She had gotten into a conversation with them the previous evening and the dark-skinned one - he had introduced himself as Cord Garstow - seemed to have taken a liking to her, too much of a liking for her taste.

She noticed that he was looking over at her now. _Probably trying to figure out how to get me into bed_ , Serina thought with a sigh. Another one she would have to convince that she wasn't interested. And from the look on his face, he wouldn't take a simple "no" for an answer, either.

Just as he started toward her table, the door on the other side of the bar was pulled open. Everybody turned to gaze at the new arrival. It was an older man, at least up in his seventies, his head nearly bald with only a thin trim of white at the back. He stood in the entrance, leaning heavily on a twisted cane, and tried to get his eyes to adjust to the dimness of the room.

The other guests turned back to their drinks, some making nasty remarks about the old man. But Serina felt herself unable to turn her attention from him. She couldn't say why but she felt that her waiting hadn't been in vain after all. Long minutes passed and then the old man started to move toward her table. From the corner of her eye she realized that Cord had also resumed his advance toward her.

He was the last person she had use for just now. Though their conversation had been sort of pleasant the night before, she preferred to get on with her real business. Perhaps a small distraction would change the guy's mind! With a slight motion of her hand she used the Force to move a pillow from one of the sitting groups to the floor right in front of her would-be suitor. A loud thud and a curse rewarded her effort instantly. With a smile on her lips, Serina turned to face her elderly visitor.

"May I join you, young lady?" he asked politely, his voice high and raspy. She nodded and waited until he had sat down on the chair across from her. A quick glance around the room ensured her that nobody was paying them any attention. Cord had returned to his seat at the bar, too embarrassed to even look in her direction. _Good,_ Serina thought, _now let's see what this guy is all about._

"Is the sun still high up in the sky?" she addressed him while taking a closer look. She could sense no danger, but something seemed to bother the man.

"As sure as hawkbats attack their prey from on high," he answered her in the prearranged manner.

"You are not the one I was supposed to meet." Serina knew it was a stab in the dark, but when the insecurity she felt in him increased rapidly, she knew she had hit the problem dead-on.

With a small nod the old man confirmed her suspicion. "There has been a little problem with local authorities, so your original contact couldn't make it. You will discover that I can provide you the same service that he was going to offer you."

"Good. Then let's get on with the deal, I've waited long enough already. You know what my buyer is looking for. You will take me to the goods and if they are authentic you will receive a fair reward, just as I had agreed upon with the original contact. However, let me warn you, if the goods prove to be fakes - and believe me, I can tell the difference easily - you will not have to worry about telling anybody else about your find. This is your last chance to step back from this deal." She put enough harshness in her voice to convince him of her seriousness.

The old man winced under her cold stare, but held his ground. "They are authentic, oh yes, they definitely are," he assured her.

"I hope so, for your sake. When will you take me there?"

He reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a crumpled-up sheet of paper. With shaking hands, he attempted to smooth the wrinkles out of it. It seemed to have served as food-wrapping before being turned into a makeshift map. Grease stains covered most of it providing an irregular background pattern for a scribbly drawing.

"This here is the spaceport," he pointed to a semicircle located almost in the middle of the map. Two thick lines connected it with the nearest cities to the north and southwest. "If you follow this main route to _Trel's Cove_ ," he indicated the thick line leading north, "you will get to a small turn-off right at the foot of the first mountain range. Take it and follow it until you reach a broken-down house by a lake. I will be waiting there for you. From there it will not be far."

Serina grabbed the improvised map and folded it up. "How long will it take from the spaceport to the lake?"

"With a landspeeder about an hour. I will be waiting for you there at 900 local time."

"All right. Tomorrow at 900. And don't make me wait!" With a curt nod Serina rose and headed for the door. When she passed the bar, she gave Cord a condescending look. No, he would not bother her anymore. And by this time tomorrow, she would hopefully be already on her way back to _Imperial Center_. _Now let's just hope this find is not a flop like the last two,_ at least she wished it for the old man's sake. Vader's instructions had been quite clear in such a case. Deceit - ignorantly or on purpose - was unforgivable.

* * *

 _Something was out there! The thought send a chill up her spine. The dim light from the few stars in the sky hardly enabled her to discern the road she was walking on. Suddenly, she came to an abrupt halt. The darkness in front of her feet was even darker than the night around her. Only with a great effort she kept herself from falling into it._

 _A strange fascination caused her to step as close to the chasm as she dared. Her eyes tried to pierce the darkness below. Did something move down there? She knew it would have been much safer to turn back and leave, but safety did not concern her much at this moment. She had to know what was down there!_

 _Too late she noticed the thick, slimy tentacle that quickly wrapped itself around her legs. She let out a scream and tried to turn, but too late. She fell hard to the ground and was slowly, but inevitably drawn down into the pit._

 _Desperately, she flung her hands along the ground trying to find something to hang on to, but to no avail. Again, she screamed..._

...and woke as her covers finally gave way. With a loud thud, she landed on the floor beside the bed. Trying to shake the last remnants of the dream, Serina sat up and looked at the chronometer on the nightstand. Only 400 hours! And there was no use trying to go back to sleep either. With a sigh, she stood up and turned on the small lamp beside the bed.

The dream – and it was clearly a dream and not a vision, she had always known the difference between them, even as a child - bothered her. It hadn't been the first time that she had dreamt it, and most likely it wouldn't be the last time either. But whatever her subconscious was trying to tell her, she was not in the mood to find out at this time. Water was one of the few things in abundance on this remote planet and a hot shower was exactly what she needed right now. At least she would have plenty of time to pack and get out to the meeting point before 900 hours.

* * *

Her ride to the spaceport was already waiting outside when Serina checked out at the motel's reception desk. It would be easy to rent a small landspeeder there. She would have to return to the spaceport anyways since the offices of the Imperial representative were located in the small settlement that had been built around it. From there she could contact Lord Vader and request a shuttle back to _Imperial Center_.

The airspeeder that picked her up was operated by a ragged looking fellow, who dropped her off at the lot of a small rental agency. The sky overhead was heavy laden with clouds, hiding the just risen sun. Being the only customer on the lot, she drew the attention of the slimy looking agent immediately. While he started talking rapidly, praising several of his sales objects, Serina inspected the landspeeders trying to select the most reliable one. Nearly all of them were in pretty bad shape and she was beginning to wonder how the guy could make a living off renting these trash buckets. Finally, she noticed an older model, perhaps even more beat up then the others were, but it had a good feeling about it. She had learned to trust her instincts in cases like this one and the reaction of the agent, when she informed him of her selection, confirmed her feeling. The flash of anger that crossed his face was proof enough that she had picked the best one of the whole lot.

After working out the payment details, she steered the small speeder out of the lot and headed toward _Trel's Cove_. Traffic around the spaceport was just starting to pick up as the workers started coming in from the surrounding settlements, but hardly anybody was heading in her direction. Soon she was the only vehicle on the deserted highway. It had been built during the early years of settlement designed to provide a fast connection for ground vehicles, but the advances in technology had reduced its usage drastically. Now it was nearly grown over by weeds, but it still offered a good landmark to follow.

Without the scraggly map, Serina would have probably missed the small turn-off leading east. Even in the days of ground-bound transport, it couldn't have been more than a dirt road for off-road vehicles. It followed along the foot of the mountain range westward for several minutes before turning north again into a small canyon. Between the steep walls of the mountains on either side there was barely enough space for her small craft to get through. She moved along the narrow twisting trail for a long time until it suddenly widened into a small clearing around a clear blue lake. On the far side of the lake Serina noticed a broken-down building of some sort. It might have been some kind of restaurant for vacationers, but had been deserted for a long time already. The roof had caved in and decay had taken its toll upon the walls.

She parked her landspeeder behind the crumbling building and got out. Sensing a presence nearby, she turned to face the old man who had just left his hiding place under the doorway of the former restaurant.

"You are early, it is not 900 hours yet," he addressed her as he approached.

"It that a problem for you?" she asked with a sharp edge to her voice. "So where is this place you were going to show me?"

He gave no sign that he might consider her demanding tone inappropriate, but turned toward the west side of the clearing and pointed at a spot about halfway up the mountain slope. "It's up there. If you look close you might be able to discern a small hut and the narrow trail leading up there." Serina narrowed her eyes to slits, but to no avail. She could have used the Force to increase her perception, but the macrobinoculars would work just as well and were much less conspicuous. She walked back to the landspeeder and removed them from her travel-bag together with her utility belt. The small hand-held device confirmed what the old man had told her. Starting at the clearing, a barely visible trail zigzagged up the steep mountain slope to a small hut. As far as she could discern, it was still in pretty good shape unlike the building behind them.

"Then let's get moving." She put on the utility belt and placed the binoculars back into their casing. Motioning the old man to lead the way, she started up the slope after him. It was still chilly with a cold wind blowing down from the mountains and Serina longed for her usual clothing - the black tightfitting outfit with the thin isolating lining and the black hooded cape made of armorweave - but it would have caused suspicion as to her true affiliations. So, she had decided for regular brown baggy pants and a loose- fitting shirt of the same color. The thin dark flight-jacket provided some warmth, but after the third sharp bend she didn't even notice the cold morning air any more. The old man had slowed down and would probably need some rest soon. Hopefully, they could reach the hut before noon.

The small valley had a strange feeling to it. Serina had noticed it already upon her arrival, but the quiet march up the zigzagging path intensified the impression. It was like a mixture of peacefulness mingled with great sadness. She was now convinced that the find would be worth her time. The hut must have belonged to a Jedi; the strange sensation could not be explained any other way. Had the old man known the Jedi himself? If she could persuade him to tell her more about how he had found this place, it might provide her with some useful insights.

When they stopped to allow the old man to gather some strength for the rest of the way, Serina concentrated on projecting feelings of comfort, friendship and trustworthiness into his mind. Slowly, while he was catching his breath, the wariness he had felt toward her was replaced by a conviction that she meant him no harm, yes, that he could even trust her with the full story of the Jedi who had, in times past, lived here.

When Serina sensed that her "persuasion" had produced the desired effect, she sat down beside him. "I wonder who used to live here. This place is so peaceful. Did you know the man personally?" Her lightly asked question was the cue for the old man to start his story. With a sad smile on his face he nodded slowly.

"Oh yes, I knew him even quite well. Usually, I would not dare to tell anybody, you know the policy of the Empire regarding the Jedi, but I have the feeling that I can trust you. And besides, he has been dead now for more than nine years."

He paused for a moment, as his mind wandered back through time.

"His name was Tiras Demans. I came to know him when we were both still young men in our twenties. He had come to this planet in the course of his research. He was an archeologist of sorts. At that time, I didn't know that he was a Jedi, but I always knew there was something different about him. I helped him with some of his research and we became friends. Some years later, he came back and bought this valley including everything. He told me he had inherited some money and was looking for a place of solitude. The former owners closed down their restaurant at the lake and left. It was the perfect place for him. Once or twice a year he would spend some time at this place, then he would be gone again.

When the Clone Wars started, he didn't show up at all anymore. I had already wondered what had happened to him, when one day I saw a report on the holonet. They brought the story about one of the battles and were showing the Jedi involved in the fights. And there among the other Jedi - I could hardly believe my eyes - was my friend Tiras. Suddenly, I understood much that had been puzzling me about him the whole time. I didn't really expect him to ever return." He hesitated for a brief moment, then the expression on his face turned to one of great sorrow.

"But about ten, eleven years ago - it must have been some months after the declaration of the Empire - I decided to take a trip out here just for old memories sake. Can you imagine how surprised I was when I found that he had returned and was hiding in this remote place from the Empire? I promised to keep his existence a secret, especially since I realized that he was very ill. He told me that he had gotten wounded toward the end of the war and had contacted a rare bone-disease. His own Jedi abilities could not keep his body from succumbing to the disease and since all the Jedi healers at the Temple had been killed, there was no place he could really turn to. I kept him company during his last months and cared for him. One day, I returned from a supply trip to only find a paper with his scraggly writing on it. He had left me all his personal belongings, including this valley, but of him I found no trace."

He fell silent, too moved to continue. Serina didn't want to press him, he would tell her more in due time. _Does he know that he just pronounced his own death sentence?_ Serina thought to herself. What he had done in keeping the existence of this Jedi hidden from the local authorities was considered high treason in the Empire. As Vader's agent, she would have no choice but to execute the judgement as soon as she had achieved her primary goal.

They continued their ascent until they reached the small hut shortly before noon. The early morning clouds had lifted above the valley and the sun was now shining right down on them. Serina removed her jacket and waited for the old man to unlock the primitive closing mechanism in the hut's wooden door.

Before he led the way into the dark room, he turned to her. "I would have never told anybody about this place. Only my closest family knew about it, my wife and my son. My wife passed away two years ago, but," and the resentment in his voice was palpable, "Derok, my son, is a gambler. A few weeks back, he finally managed to get himself into such deep debt that there was no way he could ever pay back the money he owed. Somewhere, he picked up the rumor that some rich guy was looking for Jedi artifacts and was willing to pay exceeding high prices to get them. Without telling me, he got in contact with you and offered what he thought might be found in this place. At first, I could not believe what he had done. But then, three days ago, he had to gamble again. He lost and got into a fight because of it. The authorities picked him up and put him into prison. And now I need the money to get him back out of there." His voice was full of bitterness and contempt for the son he had raised. Without another word, he turned and entered the small room.

 _Then the son should be easy to locate,_ Serina thought to herself. He was just as guilty as his father. She would have to take care of him as well, but she felt no pity for him. He had brought that on himself with his gambling addiction.

The light from the open entrance and the small window was barely enough to discern the contents of the room. A primitive bed, table and chair filled one side, a small kitchen the other. Through an open door leading further into what appeared to be a cave behind the hut, a small refresher unit could be seen as well as a storage room. The left rear wall of the hut, already partially set in the rock, seemed to have served as a walk-in closet. A few old moth-eaten robes were still hanging in there, even an old pair of boots could be seen on the floor of the closet. Nothing provided any hint, that a Jedi had occupied this place until his death more than nine years prior.

Before Serina could berate the old man for having lied to her, he stepped into the closet and felt along the edge of the rear wall. Suddenly, a low rumbling noise started as the wall started to move to the side. Behind it lay another room. Lighting a glowrod he had brought along the old man stepped through the narrow opening.

Serina followed. The room reminded her strongly of a library she had once seen at a distant relative's house in her youth. Shelves lined the far wall, filled with antiquated books and more modern reading discs. On the right side of the room, a heavy wooden chest became visible as the old man swept the glowrod through the room. A small workbench with various tools on it filled the left side. The tools looked very familiar and Serina could even recognize a half-built lightsaber among them.

She felt a strange urge to investigate the heavy chest. Carefully, she let her fingers glide over the richly ornamented lid. The chest would be worth a fortune, if she could locate the right person to sell it to. Perhaps, Vader would want to keep it himself, but even the Emperor might be interested in it. It might not have anything to do with what she was actually looking for, but it had made her trip worthwhile, even if all the Jedi artifacts proved to be fakes, which she doubted seriously.

She tried to raise the lid, but it would not budge. Again, she let her fingers investigate the chest, but she quickly realized that there was no lock anywhere to be found. There had to be another way to open it. Reaching out through the Force, she felt along the inside of the chest with her mind. There: fastening the lid to the sides of the chest she found seven clasps. The old Jedi had made sure that only somebody able to use the Force would gain access to the contents. Meticulously, she twisted each one of the mechanisms until she had heard seven barely discernable clicks. Then she tugged again at the lid. This time it moved with ease, swinging up and coming to rest against the wall behind the chest. Motioning the old man to lighten the inside of the chest with his glowrod, she studied the precious contents. Lightsabers of various origins, a few Jedi medallions mingled with small artifacts from various planets. Some of them she recognized while most of them were totally unfamiliar.

Then her gaze was drawn to a small cube. It lay nearly hidden among two weirdly shaped objects. A strange glow seemed to emanate from it when the light of the glowrod passed over it. The sides were covered with curious designs. A memory of something Vader had once told her started to stir at the back of her mind. The object seemed somehow familiar. After a moment of hesitation, she removed it from the chest and held it in her outstretched hand.

She felt a sudden compulsion to touch the designs of the strange object, not with her hands, but through the Force. A curious sound filled the air and above the topside of the cube the holographic picture of a small wrinkled up creature appeared.

"Jedi, may the Force be with you. Hear the words of Jahon! Darkness the world has filled with fear; few there are left able to fight it. The tiny light strengthen you must, then one day a fire will spark from its glimmer. But beware of the dark side or down dragged you will be to never see light again yourself. And again beware." When the image started to collapse upon itself, Serina realized from the ache in her chest that she had forgotten to breathe during the past moments.

Drawing in a deep breath, she stood there unable to move as recognition dawned on her. It was a Jedi holocron! The Emperor prided himself in having the most famous one of the ancient recording devices, but Vader had once told her that there had been various others. Many had been destroyed, but hardly all of them.

Many great Jedi Masters of old had used this method to pass on their teachings to the following generations of Jedi Knights. Depending on the line of Jedi Masters that had possessed such a holocron, the entries could vary in several ways: amount of entries, depth of teaching, and the events that were recorded therein. But they all had one attribute in common. Only the presence of a force-sensitive being could unlock the holocron. The gatekeeper would then use the contact through the Force to give appropriate advice from its various recordings, just as this one had done for her.

Had the holocron sensed her dream from the night before? It fit in perfectly with what the holocron's gatekeeper had told her. The path she had been on these past four years was certainly a dangerous one. She had immersed herself in the dark side often enough to know of the danger of being swallowed up by it. But so far, she had been able to not get addicted to the power the dark side provided. She used it to accomplish the tasks assigned by her master and as long as he allowed her a place at his side, she was content. For now! But if she wasn't careful, the dark side would drag her down into its relentless grip and she would end up like Vader had, or perhaps even worse. And being restricted to surviving in an armored bodysuit was not the worst of it. Living with a soul filled solely with hate, rage and fury and driven from one atrocity to the next in the search for even more power, all the while the cost of the dark side becoming more and more visible in your body and face - oh, she knew quite well what had caused the Emperor's disfigurement, and it had not been the Jedi either, she was sure - that was not a life she could imagine for herself. Even the thought of it sent a chill down her spine. No, she couldn't and she wouldn't let that happen to her.

Turning her attention back to the device in her hand, she came to a dangerous decision. She would not deliver the holocron to Vader, since he would most likely destroy it, but she would hide it at a safe place. Perhaps, it could give her some advice on how to deal with her special situation. Carefully, she placed the small cube in the pouch on her belt.

Heavy breathing brought her attention back to the old man behind her. Had he heard what the gatekeeper had told her? Most likely. But had he understood the impact of the words? Probably not. And yet she now had another reason to dispose of him. Vader must never find out about the holocron. If he ever did, she would be in serious trouble. Vader did not tend to forgive what he considered deceit. And this action on her part could surely be interpreted as such.

"Y...y...you are a Jedi, too?" the old man stuttered barely daring to look at her.

"Well, not really. I had some training but nothing more. The Jedi are extinct. You know that, don't you?"

He was quick to assure her that he was quite aware of that fact.

"But I am very pleased at what you have shown me. My buyer will reward you quite generously, considering the number of items stored here. Let me make an inventory list and then we can talk about how much you want for it. You may remain here while I'm working on it, or you can go outside and prepare us something to eat. We will also have to check the front room. Perhaps there is something else there, that will be of value to me."

The old man nodded and left the small dim room after attaching the glowrod to a hook in the wall. Serina started to enter the various items that filled the chest and the shelves into a small datapad she had pulled out of her pouch. Even if she didn't include the holocron, Vader would be quite pleased with the find.

* * *

When Serina finally emerged from the back room, the old man had prepared some self-heating cans of stew. She motioned him to sit down on the only chair, while she moved over to the bed. It creaked loudly as she sat down on it. Quietly, they ate their simple meal.

"I am finished back there. Once we have agreed on a price, I will send somebody to pick up everything." Thoughtfully, she stroked the old, dusty pillows on the bed. Suddenly, Serina felt something hard under one of them. She reached underneath and discovered a small leather-bound booklet. It appeared to be a very old fashioned diary. She had once seen one as a child, but they had been quite out of use even then. She wondered briefly, if it would give her an insight into how a Jedi Knight had ended up owning a whole valley. As far as she had heard, Jedi had usually abstained from all possessions.

Not wanting to damage the parched leather binding, she carefully opened it to the first page. A scribbly writing filled the paper, a date at the left lower corner indicated a time some twenty-five years prior. From the first sentences, it became obvious quickly, that the writer had started recording events many years before the Clone Wars had even started, during a time, when the Jedi Order had still been the guardians of the galaxy. Carefully, she started to leaf through it trying to catch the name of a person or place familiar to her.

When the name Obi-Wan Kenobi appeared in one of the reports, Serina realized that she had stumbled upon something possibly just as valuable to her as the holocron. If this Tiras had known Obi-Wan, Vader's old teacher, there might also be some clues in the records as to where Obi-Wan might have gone into hiding after his fateful fight with his former apprentice. If she could locate him, perhaps the Jedi Master could give her the necessary training to allow her to continue at Vader's side without eventually being drawn down the dark side path beyond the point of no return. If he did, she might just forego passing the information of his whereabouts to her dark master.

With a smile, she closed the diary and placed it in the pouch beside the holocron. Despite the slow start, this assignment was turning out quite a success after all. Then she finished the stew from the small can.

* * *

As Serina was slowly following the old man down the steep path back to the small lake, she considered the task at hand. He had committed treason in aiding the Jedi, but the words of the holocron gatekeeper had left her ill at ease with the thought of just slaying him in cold blood. It was the first time since killing her former classmate John Rogards that her conscience interfered with a swift execution of her master's commands. But was there another option available? It was not only the treason against the Empire, but he had seen her activate the holocron. And that was a memory she could not allow him to live with. _Memory,_ she thought, _it's all a matter of his memory._ And slowly an alternative started to form in her mind.

When they arrived at the decrepit old building by the lake-side, Serina pulled off her gloves and held out her hand to the old man. "Thank you for taking me up there," she addressed him. "It is truly a find my client will be very interested in." Still all unsuspecting, he accepted her proffered hand.

Her grip was like iron as she jerked him forward until she could place her free hand on the bare skin of his neck. She concentrated on the desires for her dark master ever burning in her soul, allowed them to fill her whole self, and opened herself up to the Force. As she reached for the mind of the man in her firm grasp, a moan escaped his lips. Just as she had practiced with some of the prisoners, provided by Vader for her experiments, she scanned through the old man's memories of the Jedi still very present in his mind from the conversation they just had had during their trip. As she erased a memory here and changed a memory there, she could feel the old man starting to tremble and he would certainly have slumped to the ground, had her iron grip not forced him to stay in an upright posture. Only when she was convinced, that he would neither remember the fact that his friend had been a Jedi nor that he had come back and died on this planet and certainly nothing that had transpired during the past hours up at the hut, she withdrew her hand from his neck and released him from her grasp.

"Whoa there," she told him as she caught his crumbling form. "You should have waited in the shade while I was up in the mountain. Come, sit down and have a drink." As she offered him some water from her drinking bottle, she carefully watched his reaction. He was obviously confused, but seemed to adjust to the situation quickly.

"Thank you," he told her, "did you find what you were looking for?"

"I sure did," she confirmed. "If you want to, you can head back home now. I no longer need your services. How much do I owe you for taking me out here, Mr...?" She suddenly realized that she had not even gotten his name yet.

"Herbs, Selbin Herbs. And you don't owe me anything. If anybody owes me for this trip, it's my good for nothing son."

"Of course, your son. I will take care of the rest of my business with him, since he contacted me." After bidding him farewell, she watched the retreating form of his landspeeder disappear along the narrow twisting trail leading back toward the spaceport. Manipulating his memory in this way was most likely not according to Jedi teachings either, but it was highly preferable to killing the old man. After she had changed into her regular black outfit, she removed a large backpack from her speeder and headed back up the steep trail to the Jedi's hut.

* * *

Serina was glad that she had taken the time to register the interesting contents of the hut during her visit a few hours prior. It did not take long to move the truly valuable items into the chest or her backpack. Getting the chest out from the hidden backroom proved more of an effort than she had expected. The small passageway in the walk-in closet was simply too narrow.

Serina unhooked the lightsaber from her belt and ignited it. Careful to not set on fire the dry wood, she cut around the edges of the closet, separating it from the rock it had been bolted to. Then she felt for the Force around her and used it to push against the massive wooden object. Slowly, it moved outward centimeter by centimeter, by far not as fast as Serina had expected.

With growing frustration, she thought on how her Dark Lord could achieve much greater telekinetic feats with just a flick of his hand, not even having to concentrate on it. She allowed the frustration and anger at her own inaptitude well up inside of her, fueled it with thoughts of other occasions, when she had to endure pain because of it, and with the memories of the hate and anger that constantly raged inside of her master. When she had eliminated all other emotions and felt only the anger inside of her, she reached out again for the Force. Then she drew the strength of it into herself and used it to push against the closet. This time there was no resistance at all. The heavy wooden frame slipped forward out of its rocky casing and crashed to the floor of the small room in front of it, braking into crumbling chunks. Clouds of dust billowed up and filled every nook and cranny of the small hut.

With a satisfied grunt, Serina concentrated on the chest. Again, she used the Force to lift it from the floor and guide it past the rubble of the closet to the front of the hut and into the open. _This is more like it,_ she thought to herself. As long as she could keep the anger burning in her, moving the chest all the way down to her speeder would be a piece of cake. After a last quick inspection of the hut, she collected all highly combustible items and placed them in the front room. Then she ignited her lightsaber and set fire to the pile by swiping her blade along the top of it. For a short moment, she used the Force to fan the flames toward the back of the hut. When she finally stepped through the front door, the whole rear part of the hut was already burning brightly and the flames had started to lick along the wooden floorboards toward the entrance.

By the time, she had finally managed to maneuver the chest down the steep path to her speeder, night had fallen on the lonely valley. The trip had left her drained and she was glad for a chance to meditate before she had to move on. Once she had recovered her strength, she reached again for the Force and lifted the chest into the rear seat of her speeder. Then she spread an old blanket over it, which she had taken from the hut for just that purpose. There was no need to worry about the contents. She had relocked the chest with the inside mechanisms and nobody would be able to open it without using at least a blaster or the likes. Before leaving, she cast a last glance up at the hut. The fire had gone out, but, in the light of the planet's two moons, the smoke rising from the charred remains could still be clearly seen. With a satisfied smile, she started the engine of the landspeeder and headed back to the spaceport.

* * *

Having arrived on a civilian transport to stay in line with her cover story, Serina would have to arrange a transport back to _Imperial Center_. But first there was still the issue of the old man's son to be taken care of. The place where the gambler had been imprisoned for the past few days was easy to be found. It was right next to the Imperial garrison and was used as detention area by the soldiers as well as by the local authorities.

She parked her landspeeder outside. Pulling the hood of her robe deep into her face, she strode into the small lobby of the two-story building. An officer of the local security force sat behind the front desk and cast a weary glance at the chronometer when he saw her. It was already close to midnight and the look he gave her left little hope of any cooperation to be expected. But Serina had no intentions to waste her time on being polite.

She stepped up briskly to the desk and addressed the officer with a determined expression on her face and a good measure of Force-aided persuasion in her voice. "I am here to interrogate Derok Herbs. You will have him prepared for interrogation immediately." For a moment, the man looked annoyed, but his face quickly assumed a blank expression. "You are here to interrogate Derok Herbs," he repeated dutifully after her. "I will have him prepared for interrogation immediately." After he had checked on the location of the prisoner, he gave orders to have the man brought into one of the interrogation chambers.

In silence, they waited for the implementation report. When the confirmation was given per intercom that the prisoner was ready, Serina informed the officer, "You will take me to him now. You will not record the interrogation." Dutifully the officer repeated her orders. Then he got up and led her down into the basement of the building. Outside of a small chamber, he stopped and entered a security code into the lock-pad beside the door. "Recording has been deactivated."

"You may return to your desk now. You will not disturb me. You will forget that I was even here." As he turned and headed back to his front desk, Serina released him out of her mental control. For a moment, he hesitated, but he had already forgotten that she even existed. Without looking back in her direction, he continued up the stairs.

Once he was out of sight, Serina activated the opening mechanism of the door and stepped inside. The room with the prisoner tied to a single chair in the middle and the bright light above him brought back an unpleasant memory of a time long passed. But Serina pushed it aside. This was not the time to reminisce about that part of her past and the man in front of her could certainly not be compared to the twelve-year-old girl she had been at that incident.

Slowly she walked around him once while he watched her with a pinched expression on his face. Selbin's son was a wretched creature to behold. The bruises and cuts from the fight he had been in days prior were still visible on his face and his bare arms. His clothes were dirty and torn, and he exuded the stench of intoxicants and lacking hygiene.

"So, what do you want?" he finally bellowed at her.

She did not even bother to reply but just stood there scrutinizing him for a few more minutes. "I just wanted to get a good look at the kind of son that would betray his father for money," she finally told him, her contempt for the wretch palpable in her voice, "money he lost in gambling at that."

It was obvious from the confused expression on his face that he still had not drawn the right conclusion. "Betray my father?" he wondered out loud.

"Owning Jedi artifacts is illegal. You know that. If you knew of those items, you should have reported them - immediately, not years later."

Slowly realization dawned on his face. "You are my contact?" he asked still uncertain what that actually implied for his future, yet obviously not wasting any thought on what might have happened to his father.

Serina nodded as she slowly pulled off her gloves. "Yes, you contacted me. That was your first mistake. Sending your father to meet me was your second. There will not be a third. But first I will show you something." She took a quick step forward and placed her right hand on his bare arm. Then she poured all the sadness, disappointment and shame she had sensed in the old man as he had told her about his good for nothing son into the wretch in front of her. And she showed him how she would have cut down his father in cold blood. He did not need to know that she never implemented that action but had chosen to spare the old man.

When she finally let go of his arm, he just sat there torn between defiance and first signs of remorse. "That used to be his friend, not mine," he tried to talk his way out of her accusation. "I didn't even know for sure what was up there."

"So, you tried to deceive me? You truly think that kind of excuse will work?" It was time to end this charade. "My master does not take kindly to deception and neither do I." Again, she placed her hand on his bare arm, but this time with a different purpose. As she felt into him, she found his strong beating heart. As she fed the organ with more and more stimuli the heartbeat increased rapidly. Derok's face quickly assumed a dark red hue and a pained moan escaped his lips. After a few more moments, his heart went into a spasm and, after a final agonizing beat, it stopped all together. With a desperate expression on his face and a cry of unbearable pain, Derok collapsed in the chair.

Serina stepped away from the corpse and pulled her gloves back on. Then she left the interrogation chamber and walked past the front desk without casting a backward glance. It was time to contact her master and arrange for a pick-up.


	3. Hideaway Castle

**Hideaway Castle**

(7 BBY)

"He told me to pack enough regular outfits for a couple of weeks, so I guess two or three at the most." Serina was standing in front of her closet and looked at the various clothes hanging therein. "If he says regular, I guess I won't need any of those dresses there."

"Probably not," Caaroq agreed. "Has he told you where you will be going?"

"No, but it must be some special place of his. I've checked already with the shuttle crew, but it seems that he will be flying himself this time. At least, that's what they said. He didn't even tell me what we were going to do there. He only mentioned a special training of some sort and an upcoming mission." Serina shook her head in mock resignation. "But you know him: he can be quite tight-lipped at times." She smiled ruefully. "Well, most of the time."

Caaroq knew the remark was in no way meant disrespectful even so it might have sounded that way. Serina had learned to live with the way Lord Vader conducted his business. She even agreed with it - most of the time, at least. And disrespect was surely the farthest thing from her mind. But she was right - Caaroq smiled to herself - he _was_ tight-lipped most of the time. He considered every unnecessary word a waste.

The small travel bag was quickly packed and Serina ordered one of the servants to take it down to the shuttle.

"We will be leaving tonight at 2000. Lord Vader is still over at the Palace. You know, the Emperor returned this morning."

Caaroq nodded. She had also seen in on the public NewsNet. "The reports spoke of a very successful trip to some of the _Outer Rim_ planets."

"So, I heard. And since Lord Vader's last mission was successful as well, hopefully there won't be any urgent issues that require his attention in the next few weeks. Now I still have about six hours before we leave. How about visiting that cozy little restaurant we discovered a few weeks back? I doubt that I'll be seeing such good food in the near future, no matter where we are going."

* * *

Even so they were using the fastest shuttle in the Dark Lord's possession, the trip would take some time, Vader had told her, about a day and a few hours, if no problems arose. At first, they would stop several times, just to make sure, nobody followed them _. Now who would dare to follow a Sith Lord_ , Serina wondered. But of course, there were spies everywhere and Vader had many enemies. Better safe than sorry, the old saying had proved valid much too often in the recent past.

After leaving the glowing gem of _Imperial Center_ behind them, they had made a short hyperspace jump as soon as they had left the planet's gravity well. The next two jumps were longer ones, but Serina got the feeling of traveling in circles. At least, the navicomp indicated that _Imperial Center_ was closer after the third one than after the second.

"Apparently, we were not followed. This will be a longer jump," Vader informed her while entering the coordinates for the next destination into the computer. "Get some rest."

"Yes, master." Serina got up from the co-pilot's seat and went to the passenger cabin to lie down. A short meditation allowed her to quickly fall into a solid sleep.

When Vader woke her several hours later, she felt refreshed and was anxious to find out, where their flight had taken them. With a fluid motion, she slipped into the seat beside her master and gazed out of the front viewport as the shuttle reverted back to normal space. But it was only another intermediate stop. They had not arrived yet. From the density of the stars around them, they were heading toward the _Outer Rim_. And apparently, they were not using one of the major trade routes either. At least, she could not discover signals of other vessels on the ship's sensor displays.

Vader entered the coordinates for the final jump and engaged the hyperdrive. Then he rose out of the pilot's seat. "Mind the shuttle. Call me when we are close to our destination." Then he left the cockpit and retired to the passenger cabin.

As Serina gazed at the kaleidoscopic patterns of hyperspace, she thought of the small holocron she had discovered during her hunt for Jedi artifacts. On her trip back to _Imperial Center,_ she had diligently studied the diary, but the holocron she had kept safely stored away in one of the compartments of her utility-belt. After delivering the chest and all its contents to her master, she had retired to her quarters. She had been aware of the danger of keeping the holocron close by, but where else should she have hidden it? In the end, she had placed it in the small jewelry chest Caaroq had gifted to her upon her getting her commission, the same place, where she also kept the Taozin amulet Vader had given her as a protection from the Inquisitors. And there she had kept it for the past year. Either she had been busy away from the capital or Lord Vader had been too close for her to dare to consult the Jedi device.

She had surprised herself when, while Caaroq had been distracted, she had removed the small cubical from the jewelry box and had slipped it into her travel bag. It had been an instinctive move, not one she could explain rationally. The diary, on the other hand, had been much more inconspicuous, so she had taken it along on her various assignments, studying it whenever her duties allowed.

As she had hoped, it had given her some interesting insights, perhaps not - as expected - regarding Obi-Wan Kenobi, Vader's old master, but some interesting tidbits about another famous Jedi, the so called "Chosen One". Tiras had made several remarks on how they had found a nine-year old boy by the name of Anakin Skywalker on _Tatooine_ and that there were rumors that the boy had not been fathered by a human, but had just come into existence in his mother. Tiras had been surprised how exceedingly strong the boy had proved to be in the Force and that the council had allowed Obi-Wan to train him, even so, according to the rules of the Jedi Order, he had been much too old for that. Half a diary later, after Tiras himself had gotten engaged in the Clone Wars, he had written down several of the heroic feats of that "Chosen One" and how the young Jedi had become the "poster boy" for the Republic. Toward the end of his recordings, he had mentioned that the Jedi Order had fallen, that the Clone soldiers had turned on their Jedi commanders and that most Jedi had been killed, including the "Chosen One", so he assumed. But Serina knew better. She knew he had survived. But not as a Jedi.

* * *

The system, they finally reverted back to realspace in, was deserted and the nearest inhabited world listed on the navicomp was a mining operation of the Empire a few lightyears away. When Serina cast a closer look at the sensor readings from the small planet they were quickly approaching, she also knew why. There was a total lack of plant life and only few life-signs seemed to exist on the red-brown clump of rock, hidden to a large degree by grey-brown clouds. No wonder that there were no other ships close by. Who would be interested in such a planet anyway?

With a strange fascination, she watched as the shuttle entered the upper layers of the atmosphere. Although it was quite stormy as they approached the surface, Vader guided the vessel with a steady hand. The screen in front of her displayed an automatic response to the signal her master had sent moments earlier: _Defense systems deactivated_. _Defense systems of what?_ Serina marveled. Could there be anything down there besides dead rock and even more dead rock?

The heavy gray clouds around them, ready to let go of the acid rain within them, made it nearly impossible to discern anything on the ground. Only dimly did Serina become aware of the high rock formations rising up from the surface. The acid rain had eaten at them over thousands of years and only bizarre towers of red-brown rock were left where millennia before high mountains had raised their majestic peaks into the sky.

Vader was directing the shuttle toward one of those formations now. It seemed to tower high above the others and had a most curiously shaped top, somehow rounded and yet spiky. As they approached, Serina realized that the top was no natural formation at all. It was some kind of fortress, built directly on top of one of the rocky towers. Quickly she checked the sensors. Still no life-sign readings, but they now registered a strong power source right ahead.

As they drew closer, Serina became aware of the enormous size of the castle. Huge blast gates slowly lifted to reveal a large hangar at the end of the landing pad. Vader steered the shuttle inside and set it down.

"Welcome to Bast Castle, my own private refuge." Serina could hear a restrained self-satisfaction in Vader's voice as he led her to the exit hatch of the shuttle. "The planet itself is called _Vjun_ , but I'm sure that, except for the Emperor and myself, hardly anybody has ever heard of it."

Serina didn't doubt that for a moment. Even if somebody had, they would have forgotten it quickly. This place made even _Tatooine_ look like paradise! She wondered what had happened to the construction crews that had built the castle. Vader's security measurements could be quite drastic at times.

As they walked toward the doors at the far end of the hangar bay, the heavy gates slammed back down behind them, sealing the inside of the castle from the unfriendly nature outside. The air within the impressive structure was somewhat stale as if nobody had moved along these hallways for some time except for cleaning droids. And yet an evil presence seemed to cling to the walls, as if the dark spirit of its owner had left a permanent imprint on the whole structure.

After passing through a vast reception hall, Vader led Serina through a set of double safety doors into a spacious command center. Motion sensors caused the lights to come on revealing a large semi-circle of displays and terminals lining the far wall. Small isles with control stations spread out across the large room in front of them. Most of them were on standby, the screens dark. On one of the few active ones an image of the deserted landing pad outside was visible. Another screen displayed a portion of the sky above the castle. More of them lit up, as Vader moved through the room activating various links to observation stations throughout the _Vjun_ system.

Serina was anxious to explore more of the castle. Her master seemed to take no notice as she left the command center. She slipped back out into the hallway and headed in the direction leading further away from the hangar. A turbolift carried her up into one of the higher levels. Depending solely on her intuition, she kept walking down the corridors. Glowpanels lighted up as she approached and turned back off once she had moved on. She had yet to find a window allowing a view of the planet outside.

Her brisk walk came to an abrupt halt when the corridor opened into a large hall. She had finally reached the far end of the castle. What might have been designated in other places as recreational area lay before her: huge transparisteel windows covered the far side of the room. Outside, a wide terrace was visible, secured at the rim by a low stone wall. What could be seen of the planet was no different from the view she had gotten from the shuttle, only that now the clouds had started to dump their loads of acid rain. Large drops hissed against the deflector shields that had come up to protect the castle from nature's onslaught.

The large room was empty except for several groups of formfitting chairs close to the windows. Serina placed her travel bag on the floor and lowered herself into one of them. For long moments, she stared out into the unfriendly sky. What a strange world! Somehow befitting her Dark Lord, she thought, but why had he brought her here? She felt quite honored. His trust in her loyalty had to be very high; otherwise he would have never shown her his own private refuge. It also put her in additional jeopardy. Any distrust on his part would be her immediate death sentence. But, she reminded herself, this had been a danger she had been aware of since the day she had become his apprentice.

For a long time, she just sat there letting her mind drift through memories of the past years and her dreams of the future. When a heavy gloved hand came to rest on her shoulder, she was abruptly pulled out of her reverie. She looked up at the dark figure standing behind her chair.

"I will show you what you need to know of the castle now. You might also want to get something to eat."

He turned to head back toward the hallway. Serina got up, shouldered her travel bag and hurried after him. It took them nearly an hour to tour the most important levels of the huge structure. Many of the rooms had never been used, but their purpose was easily discernible. Some were equipped for training purposes - Serina saw even a couple of Vader's gladiator droids in one of them -, others contained diverse kinds of laboratories. A few on the lower levels were even designed as detention cells completely staffed with interrogator droids and restraining harnesses. On the way, Vader explained to her the various safety measures installed to protect the castle and everybody inside not only from the unfriendly nature outside, but also from any kind of attack or intrusion.

Finally, their tour took them back to the upper levels where they stopped at a small dining area with a fully automated food dispenser. Serina stepped up to the terminal displaying all the different selections the droid operated kitchen offered. Though it was not stocked like the one at Vader's castle on _Imperial Center,_ the food would not get boring as long as they didn't stay more than a couple of weeks. Yet she wondered why it even existed. Vader had no use for it. His nourishment was provided by his bodysuit or the feeding tube in his chambers. Were there other residents at this castle besides the Dark Lord? All she had seen so far were various droids. But perhaps he was accompanied by some of the 501st at times. It was the only explanation she could think of.

After considering the menu for a moment, Serina selected a plicto steak with some stuffed yams. _Better get some solid nourishment_ , she thought, _you never know what he has in store for the rest of the day_. After adding a small salad and a large glass of R'alla mineral water to her selection, the terminal displayed one final question: Delivery location? With a questioning look on her face she turned to the dark figure still standing behind her.

"Enter _private room_ , and then come along." Without waiting for her to finish her order, he turned and strode toward the entrance. Serina quickly enter the correct designation and hit the finished key before she hurried out of the dining area to follow him.

They had not walked this way before, Serina was certain. It led them straight to the very heart of the castle. The security measures they passed on the way reminded her strongly of those directly outside of Vader's private rooms at his castle on _Imperial Center_. Finally, they arrived at a set of heavy double doors.

Vader stepped up to a scanning mechanism and entered a code into the control pad. After a few moments, he stepped to the side and motioned her forward. Once she had been scanned, he entered another command. Without a noise, the heavy doors slid aside and revealed the small space of a pressure lock. Serina barely managed to squeeze in next to the large frame of the Sith Lord. The doors slipped shut and the air pressure inside started to rise. After a few moments, the airlock opened on the opposite side.

The room she beheld left Serina quite speechless. In comparison to the medical chamber Vader used on _Imperial Center_ \- and it was already quite large when compared with the one on his flagship - this room was immense. Serina was certain that it even had its own power generator.

Its form was more or less spherical. Three steps led down from the airlock to the bottom of it, and it was divided into two separate areas. A mosaic of displays covered most of the wall of the left half of the chamber with a row of terminals below it. One of Vader's typical meditation chairs had been placed directly in front of them. Above it, Serina recognized the mechanical arms for removing the helmet and breathing mask that she knew so well from the other hyperbaric chambers.

As her gaze moved toward the other half of the room, she was reminded of the special chamber in the EmPal SuRecon Center, the only room she had known of where her master could have the armored bodysuit removed either for repair of the same or for treating severe injuries to his body. And it was, of course, the only place, where they could physically consummate their desires, being otherwise limited to a mental re-experiencing of the same. Imbedded in the walls, various kinds of medical sensors and displays were recognizable and the middle of the area was taken up by an oversized surgical table. Though it was obviously made of metal, the top consisted of an untypical thick padding. Various cables and tubes were hanging from the ceiling above the table and in the far corner stood a deactivated Ubrikkian DD-13 surgical droid, most likely the same model as used at the Recon Center.

In the far-right corner, another airlock was visible. Though she could not tell why, she had the impression that it had been installed only recently. The illumination of the room was set to low and the air was starting to acquire the distinct smell of the special medication Vader's lungs required.

Slowly, Serina followed the Dark Lord down into the chamber. "You will find your quarters on the other side." Vader indicated the airlock Serina had discovered only moments earlier. "Your dinner should have arrived by now. Join me once you are finished." Then he stepped up to the meditation chair and settled into it. As Serina approached the airlock, she watched out of the corner of her eye, as the mechanical arms moved downward to relieve him of the helmet and the mask.

After the young woman had left the room, Vader waited for the robotic arms to loosen the breathing mask and lift it off his hideously scarred head. Then he checked the latest read-outs on the displays before him. Everything appeared to be in perfect order. No unusual occurrences had registered since his last visit. The regular maintenance and the special modifications, arranged some weeks prior in preparation for his current stay at the castle with Serina, had taken place according to his orders.

Then he leaned back into his chair and considered his reasons for bringing the young woman to his private hideout, the girl who had become a willing tool in his hands to deploy as he saw fit. Though able to hold her own in any fight, she was not as skilled a fighter as some of the others he had trained before or was training even now. But she had other talents, abilities to utilize in diverse covert operations. Just as the one he would be sending her on after the purpose for their visit had been achieved.

And she was the only one he knew of who could grant him complete relief of the constant pain in his flesh, even if it was only for a short length of time. That she was able to arouse in him and consummate with him sensual desires he had no longer considered possible, was an unexpected, yet welcome additional effect.

An effect that had been the focus of a conversation with his master just some weeks prior:

 _"Lord Vader, I have been wondering lately: is your interaction with your young protégé proceeding to your satisfaction?"_

 _He had been quite surprised at the unexpected inquiry and had been quick to confirm that it was so._

 _"Of course, I do not monitor how often you indulge in this interaction," the Emperor had continued, but Vader was sure his master was doing exactly just that, "but it has been close to four years already: should the young woman not have gotten…" his master had hesitated for a stronger emphasis and continued with a dangerous undertone in his voice "…pregnant by now?" For a moment, he had been taken aback. This was an issue he had never even thought of considering. He had already been more than surprised that it was at all possible to have that kind of interaction, but to father a child was not something he would have even esteemed possible after the events on_ Mustafar _._

 _When he had voiced that opinion, the Emperor had quickly assured him that the medical droids had tested him as well as the young woman and had confirmed that, from a pure medical aspect, there was no reason why it had not happened so far. "Perhaps, it has just been bad timing during the past years," he had ventured, but his master had quickly countered, "Then improve the timing. A child with this parentage and the proper training would in time become a powerful ally to our cause."_

 _And a perfect replacement for its father, Vader had added by himself. He had finally understood. The goal had never been to draw the young woman to the dark side, although that had been accomplished to a certain degree as well, but to produce a child! Strong in the Force and, once a certain maturity was reached, well versed in the dark side, the Emperor would have a perfect successor for his not so perfect current apprentice. Though this was entirely in line with the Sith teachings he himself embraced, he still felt a cold anger rise in his soul at the thought. But on the other hand, if Serina got pregnant and he could somehow hide the child from his master, there would be a chance of someday finally overthrowing the Emperor. After all, some time ago Darth Sidius had found out about the existence of his once secret apprentice, Starkiller. Since then, the young boy had become part of his master's own schemes and would be of little use for the purpose he had trained him for - at least, in his current state. So, he had consented to intensify his interactions with the young woman._

 _Before the Emperor had dismissed him, he had given him an unveiled warning. "Never forget: though the young woman's desires for you are quite useful for our cause, a true Sith will never allow compassion or, even worse, love to deter him from achieving his goals. Never let your protégé become a weakness for you." His master did not need to elaborate on what was expected of him in such a case._

For long moments, he searched his own dark soul. Were there any inappropriate feelings that he might have developed for her? No, there was only a dark pleasure at her usefulness for him, personally and as his agent. As long as she proved willing and capable, he would allow her to remain with him. Once her usefulness ceased he would eliminate her as he had others who had failed him. It was the way of the dark side. And he knew that she was aware of that fact and had been aware of it even from the start. Nevertheless, she had agreed to become his apprentice. And there had been no need to coerce her into submission, no need to use fear of repercussions as a means of forcing her into his service. Just as he had never feared the Emperor. Although sometimes troubled at the prospect of the kind of punishment Darth Sidious was so fond of meting out if his expectations were not fulfilled, fear had never been his motivation for serving the Sith Lord.

But he knew where that line of thought led and the memories connected with him becoming what he now was, visible in the reflection of the dark screens in front of him. As he beheld the pale, flame-savaged face staring back at him, he felt the hot simmering rage that was forever the core of his being welling up in him. Carefully, he reigned in his emotions. They would be put to better use at another occasion. Time with Serina was not a time of violence but of a much more basic passion. The only pleasure he allowed himself outside of eliminating those who opposed the Empire and gaining more power in the process. But his time was limited and six weeks of intense interaction was all he could set aside to fulfil his master's expectations before he had to turn his attention back to other Imperial matters.

* * *

After stepping through the airlock into her new quarters, Serina dropped her travel bag at the foot of the bed taking up the left portion of the room and walked over to the window set in the wall opposite to it. Though it looked like a window it had to be a well-conceived view-screen, since her room was located deep within the bowels of the castle. The view it presented was similar to the one she had seen from the large observation deck on the top level of the building. Another door opposite to the airlock led into an average-sized refresher area. A third door was set in the wall to her right, leading back out onto the corridor.

Between the window and the door to the refresher area, a small table was affixed to the wall with a single chair in front of it. In the wall above the table, the outline of a hatch was visible with a small screen beside it. A touch button was blinking off and on, informing her that her dinner had arrived and could be removed from the service lift. She pressed the button and the small hatch opened to reveal a tray with the ordered items.

Though she had been hungry for some time already, she decided to first take a quick shower. After seeing the equipment in Vader's huge hyperbaric chamber, she was certain of what was to transpire once she returned. She wanted to be prepared for it, mentally and physically. Actually, just thinking about it caused a warm feeling to start in her lower abdomen, Quickly, it spread throughout her whole body. When the hot water had washed away the feeling of uncleanness from the hours in the shuttle, food had already become the least of her desires. She pulled a soft, dark red robe out of her travel bag and slipped into it.

* * *

When Serina returned to Vader's chamber, the droid had already been activated and was in the process of removing the Dark Lord's armor. She was reminded of the first time she had been allowed to watch the complicated - and painful - process. During their first few sexual interactions, Vader had ensured that she would only see him with or without the suit and had gone to great lengths to prevent her from observing the unpleasant procedure. But soon he had realized that since the memories of the "un-suiting" were so fresh in his mind, Serina became unintentionally aware of them through her special abilities as they indulged in their lustful pleasures. So, he had allowed her to watch.

Though the first time had been a fascinating and somewhat gruesome experience, Serina had quickly developed a clinical detachment that allowed her to watch the process with rapt attention recognizing anything out of the ordinary immediately and bringing it to his attention. She had studied the various functions of the complicated system in detail and he knew that he could depend on her assistance, should the need ever arise. Once Vader had her use her abilities during the realigning process of his artificial limbs, since it was out of all the processes related to his mutilated body the most painful one, but the way she used the Force to manipulate the sensory information in his nerves interfered with the realigning process, producing errors in the droids' readouts. So, he had resigned to bearing that pain instead.

Once the droid had removed the heavy pauldrons and the chest armor attached to them, Vader disconnected the belt from the suit. Then followed the black tabard, the gloves covering his artificial hands, the plastoid girdle that protected his abdomen, as well as the heavy boots. Carefully, the droid unlocked the hermetic collar and disconnected it from his skin and the body suit. It was removed together with the backpack that contained his emergency oxygen supply and the heating unit.

The backward seal of the body glove was released next and the multilayered suit pulled away from his upper torso until the droid could unhook the cables leading to the control box on his chest. In their stead, those from the external monitoring system above were plugged into the corresponding ports visible on Vader's right side below the ribcage. Once the external controls had taken over from the portable life support unit, the rest of the suit could be removed, leaving only the liquid and solid wastes containment system - now disconnected from the suit itself - that had the appearance of a huge diaper. At last, the droid removed that as well and started with the cleansing process, wiping down the scarred-up skin with a cloth moistened with a special solution to remove any necrotic tissue.

Serina knew that the whole process was quite painful but her master allowed no sign of discomfort to show. As she watched the droid work, she carefully scrutinized each portion of already cleansed skin, bringing anything unusual to the droid's attention. When the cleansing was finally finished and the young woman satisfied with the results, Vader ordered the droid to return to his storage position and power down.

Then he motioned Serina to step closer. He reached up and pushed her crimson robe off her shoulders. For a long moment, he just stood there, his eyes wandering over her bare slim frame, for once allowing his mind to draw a comparison to another young woman whom his former, his weaker self had been deeply in love with. They were not all that different, he noted. Same bodily shape although Serina was slightly taller and well-toned due to her military and lightsaber training, same hair color although Padmé had worn her hair long and often braided in all kinds of strange hairstyles while Serina wore hers short in a typical military fashion. Even the shape of their faces had much in common although Padmé's eyes had been a warm brown while the woman in front of him had blue eyes, close to the color his own had once been.

But there the likeness ended. Padmé had betrayed him, had refused to join him and had even brought Obi-Wan to _Mustafar_. And she had died there and he himself had become her murderer when his deepest desire had been to save her. But those thoughts led to agony, to regret, to an even greater hatred of Obi-Wan and of his own self. And now was not the time to dwell on those feelings. As he forced himself to concentrate on the young woman standing patiently in front of him, peering at him with barely contained desire in her eyes, he wished for an instant that it was not her but Padmé standing there, that he would have received the kind of acceptance Serina so willingly granted from the woman he had been married to, the woman that had been life itself for him.

Pushing that thought aside as well, he reached for Serina and pulled her close to him, allowing her to instinctively employ her unique abilities as their bodies met.

* * *

Time passed by swiftly. During the morning hours - at least what would have been morning on _Imperial Center_ \- Vader put her through a sometimes quite rigorous training. Lightsaber duels with a gladiator droid or against himself and blind flights on a dangerous parkour through the high rising rock formations of the forsaken planet alternated with more basic technics as levitating objects and meditation. The afternoons were spent in collecting the data for her upcoming mission, screening reports on smuggling activities of the previous months and evaluating various schemes that appeared propitious in achieving the desired purpose. The nighttime they spend in his chamber in more pleasurable exercises.

When Serina got too tired to go on, Vader allowed her to sleep, while he assessed the activities of his various agents spread throughout the Empire or just kept up with the news from _Imperial Center_. Oftentimes, he would let her go to sleep on the large surgical table in his chamber, just covered by her red robe. It allowed the medical droid to scan the young woman and inform him of any changes in her physical condition, especially the one change he had been ordered to engender.

Though he had perceived Serina's curiosity regarding the unusual intensity of their interaction, she had so far refrained from voicing it out loud. Once he had figured out a way to withhold any child of theirs from the Emperor, he would have to confide in her to some degree. And he would find a way, even if terminating her life right after giving birth would prove to be the only possible avenue.

* * *

Panting, Serina let herself slump back onto the thick padding of the surgical table, careful to keep her legs wrapped around the hips of the muscular form stooping over her. She could still feel his presence in her, not just bodily but in her mind as well. Together they had soared up in sexual climax, drawing on the fullness of the dark side to experience a pleasure unimpeded by mere human limitations.

As the sensation of unparalleled power slowly faded from her mind, as her body relaxed from the orgasmic spasms, she became aware of the craving deep inside of her, the craving to repeat that experience again and again. And she would do anything to achieve that, anything her master commanded.

But as much as she ached for this experience, she could not shake the feeling that there was much more to their interactions than just indulging in the pleasures thereof. Though she never tried to deliberately penetrate his mental shields - even if she could have managed it, her master's displeasure at this intrusion would have certainly proved exceedingly painful, if not fatal for her -, she often became aware of what bothered him while the physical contact lasted. Sometimes, memories from his past would surface unwittingly, granting her further insight into what had transformed him into what he now was. And she cherished those memories - no matter how disturbing they might be - as she did anything that was connected with the man he had once been.

But during the days since their arrival on this forsaken planet, he had been exceedingly careful to not grant her any insight into his thoughts at all, but had kept a tight grip on his mental shields, even during the most intense moments of their interaction. This was quite unusual. He had never done that before and she had a very hard time containing herself from inquiring about the reason.

As she gazed up into his eyes - now no longer blazing with the yellow of the dark side as just a few moments earlier, but depicting their natural color, scorched into a pale blue by the heat of _Mustafar's_ lava - she continued to smother the pain in his body replacing it with the relaxed coziness of her own. Even without being privy to his thoughts she could tell from his intense scrutiny that something was immensely bothering him. And it was directly linked to her. Perhaps now would be the right time to finally satisfy her curiosity.

"Master," she dared to break the lingering silence between them. "Something is bothering you, has been, ever since we arrived. Is it something I should know about?"

First, she could feel a surge of anger flaring through him at her question, but it did not appear to be directed at her. Then he straightened up, causing her to untangle her legs from his body.

Without answering her question, Vader activated the DD-13. "Get dressed," he told her as the droid started the painful procedure of suiting him back up.

* * *

Half an hour later, they were walking in silence toward the large observation deck in the upper portion of the castle. Serina could sense the struggle in Vader's soul, then, as they stepped outside onto the terrace, she felt him arrive at a decision.

"A few weeks back, the Emperor expressed his astonishment at the fact that you have not gotten pregnant in these past years," he finally told her as they were standing at the low stone wall gazing at the acid-scorched landscape. For once, it was not raining, but a strong wind caught their capes and whipped them around their black clad forms.

"Does he consider it truly possible?" This conversation was leading in a quite disturbing direction.

"There is apparently no medical issue to prevent it," Vader relayed to her the information the Emperor had given him.

"Perhaps it was just bad timing during the past years. There weren't that many opportunities, after all." That much was certainly true. At first, their interaction had been quite sparse and she had just been lucky. But afterwards, she had taken diligent precautions, or else she would have gotten pregnant by him already many months prior. She was glad that the Dark Lord was not aware of the mastery over her own body that she had gained in the years at his side; nor should the Emperor be. But apparently, he was getting suspicious.

"Exactly what I told him as well. He ordered me to improve the timing." The resentment he felt at being ordered around, especially in this matter, was palpable.

No further explanation was needed regarding the purpose of their stay at this hideaway castle. But it certainly put her between a rancor and a sarlacc: either she prevented a pregnancy, invoking the Emperor's anger at her master and herself and placing herself under their suspicion, or she allowed a pregnancy, fully aware of what would most likely become of the child - this would be her darkest nightmares come true! -, possibly even placing herself in a position of having fulfilled her purpose and therefore becoming expandable.

Then she realized there was more to Vader's resentment than just being ordered around by the Emperor. If she did get pregnant, he would not be willing to relinquish his child to his master. There was obviously only one reason for Palpatine to be so insistent about an offspring that had the potential of being exceedingly strong in the Force: to raise a replacement for Vader himself. That would not be a prospect the Dark Lord could allow.

On the other hand, a child of theirs would also have the potential to aid Vader in eliminating the Emperor and becoming the ruling Sith himself, if he could withhold the child through some scheme from his master's grasp. Serina finally understood why he had kept such a tight control on his thoughts during these past days. He had been concocting a plan and whatever scheme he had arrived at, she would most likely not be pleased by it.

But she doubted that he would reveal his thoughts in this matter to her, so it was better to refrain from asking. It would be much more advisable to figure out a way to allow the pregnancy and yet prevent the child from falling into either Sith's hands. Perhaps the upcoming mission would prove expedient for just that purpose.

* * *

In the days that followed, the routine stayed the same, and yet, everything was different. Where there had been a certain unencumberedness in Serina's interaction with her master, she now started treading quite carefully, avoiding the issue of what would happen in the case of a pregnancy at all costs. Once she had decided on conceiving a child, it was only a matter of days until her body was prepared for it. At the same time, she banished all thoughts as to how to save the child from the grasp of either Sith Lord from her mind.

She had discovered early on, that natural sleep was more profitable for her body and mind than a brief time spent in revitalizing meditation, although the short-term result was about the same. She was aware that Vader seldom slept, but constantly drew on the Force to reinvigorate his body. Most likely this was due to the nightmares that would plague him otherwise, even so he would never admit to that. And he had mentioned to her once that the Emperor never slept at all, in order to avoid the fate his own master, Darth Plagueis, had suffered at his hands. But she could sense the effect that practice had on both of them.

Now, dreams could not be controlled consciously. They might betray her to her master, might inform him that she was not about to sacrifice her child to his or the Emperor's ambitions. And she was starting to dread the nightmares her subconscious had developed a habit of dredging up lately. To avoid both, she started retreating to her own room after their nightly interaction, replacing the sleep she usually required with a meditation relying on the Force to revitalize her. Although Vader was aware of her changed mannerism, he did not comment on it, since it left her more time for other activities.

One night at the end of their fifth week at Bast Castle, she returned after her meditation into Vader's chamber. Even before she entered, she could sense the change in the brooding mood he had been in since revealing the purpose of their stay to her. _So, the droid has finally discovered it, too_ , she thought to herself as she stepped up behind his chair. It had taken her body just a little over two weeks to produce the needed ovum and their regular interaction had insured that it would be inseminated almost instantly. From that moment, it had only taken a few days to register on the droid's scanners.

"The Emperor will be pleased to hear that our "improved" timing has led to the desired result," he informed her of the droid's report.

"Yes, master," Serina agreed. After a moment of hesitation, she inquired, "With this purpose accomplished, when am I to start on my mission?"

Abruptly, he swiveled his chair to face her and favored her with a long, appraising gaze. "Was it so unpleasant these past days that you want to leave so quickly?"

For once, she hesitated. What did he expect her to say? That she had enjoyed it? To a certain degree that would be true, but there had just been too much pressure, too dire the consequences of failure, too horrible the future expectation of success. But lying was no option. He would perceive it immediately. "Not as pleasant as it usually is," she finally conceded, "my master," she added as she got down on her knee before him.

"We will address that issue later on. Wait for me outside. I have to show you something you will require for your mission." When Serina had entered the airlock that led into her quarters, he swiveled his chair back toward the computer displays and motioned the mechanical arms to lower mask and helmet into place. Yes, he would inform his master about their success, but he had no intention at all of relinquishing the child to the Emperor. If he had to end Serina's life to achieve that goal he would certainly do just that, but he would prefer to find a different solution, one that insured that her special abilities remained at his disposal.

* * *

With forceful strides, Vader led the young woman toward a midsized holding bay separated from the large main hangar by a set of heavy blast doors that slowly lifted at their approach. For a moment, the darkness beyond the entrance hid whatever was contained in the bay, then, at a motion of Vader's hand, everything was bathed in dazzling brightness. In awe, Serina gazed at the sleek vessel resting in the center of the hangar. Slowly, she walked around it once, taking in the elegant proportions. Then Vader motioned her to follow him up the short ramp into the ship. After a quick tour of the inside, they finally entered the cockpit. Her master indicated her to settle down in the pilot's seat and to power up the controls. Then he informed her, as briefly as possible yet in as much detail as he felt necessary, about the features of the vessel.

Kept all in black, it was nearly imperceptible in space by the naked eye. In addition, the paint was made of reflec, an advanced polymer that was light-warping and sensor defying. Should that prove insufficient, an additional cloaking device could be used, but only for a limited time due to the stygium crystals used. The Class One hyperdrive made it one of the fastest ships in the Empire.

It had retained roughly the form of a Baudo-class star yacht, but was only about half the standard size. Retractable weapons, a state of the art navicomp, and shields, that a much larger vessel would have appreciated, as well as a detachable cockpit, which could be used as an escape pod, were some of the other features. It could be operated by just a pilot, but also allowed for a copilot to assist. Therefore, it had also only two small private rooms, but her missions would hardly require her to ferry anybody around, except perhaps for her dark master should the need ever arise.

Serina had followed Vader's sparse deliberations with rapt attention. Then he had fallen silent as she had intensely studied the dashboard and familiarized herself with the arrangement of the various controls. "So," he had interrupted her concentration after some time, "what name would you choose?"

She looked up at him with a quizzical expression on her face. "I can choose a name?"

"Of course," he confirmed, "it's your ship, after all."

"My ship?" Serina could barely believe her ears. Then she spouted a name, without even having to think about it twice, " _StarLady_ , that's what I would call her. But why...?"

"It will be of advantage to not always have to rely on the Imperial Navy," was all the explanation that was forthcoming. Then Vader turned and headed back into the castle. With a last gentle caress of the dashboard, she powered the ship back down and followed her dark master.


	4. Desert Sands

**Desert Sands**

(7 BBY)

 _What a desolate place!_ Serina thought as she crossed the vast deserts that covered most of _Tatooine's_ surface. Gently her hands caressed the controls of her new ship. She was still awed by the sleek vessel. Of course, she would not use the ship during her current mission. But _Tatooine_ offered enough hiding places, Vader had ensured her. Should the need arise, the artificial intelligence of the vessel's main computer would be able to raise the ship from its hiding place and deploy it to wherever she was calling it from.

And it was that hiding place she was looking for just now. Below her, the wandering sands of the Western Dune Sea filled the display of her forward sensor array as she traveled eastward toward the Jundland Wastes. They had decided that her first port of call would be Mos Eisley since it was one of the largest settlements on the planet with enough smugglers and other shady characters to ensure a quick contact with the targeted groups. She would hide the _StarLady_ at the very southern end of the Jundland Wastes and travel on foot the last forty to fifty kilometers eastward to the nearest settlement, the small community of Anchorhead. From there it should not be too difficult to find some transport to Mos Eisley, another eighty kilometers to the north. Perhaps she would just buy herself a landspeeder for that purpose.

As Serina approached the northwestern end of the Jundland Wastes, the first rocky formations disrupted the endless rolling sand dunes. Soon the ground below her had turned into rocky canyons. Ahead of her the terrain leveled out again for some kilometers before rising again to the formation marked as "Roiya Rift" on her map. Beyond it, the rocky cliffs split into the steep borders of the Jundland Highlands that spread out southeastward.

Though she knew that Tusken Raiders, Jawas, and other indigenous sentient species lived in the desolate area below, her sensors showed no indication of anything moving in the rocky landscape. Was the area truly without life? Curious at what lay hidden below the craggy surface, Serina reduced the speed and steered her vessel closer to the ground. As she reached out through the Force to search for the lifeforms inhabiting the inhospitable area, she quickly found what the sensors had missed. Small animals and plant life formed a low-level background for the more prominent impressions of what she assumed to be Tusken Raiders, banthas and womprats.

Suddenly, another sensation became visible on the outskirts of her perception through the Force, somehow familiar and yet completely unexpected, totally out of place. It was like a ripple in the Force, similar to the waves a stone would cause in the tranquil surface of a lake. But as she tried to locate the origin of the sensation, it vanished as quickly as it had appeared, the surface of the imaginary lake again as tranquil as it had been just moments earlier.

Serina shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. Could it really be? Had she just sensed - a Jedi? The sensation had reminded her of what she felt when Vader was near. But her master's presence was dark, evil, more like a wave of pitch-black water surging over her in the Force, nothing like that gentle wave that had just lapped against her perception. There had been only one other occasion when she had felt a similar presence: _Telos_.

But here on _Tatooine_? Was it possible? On the other hand, what better place was there to hide in than the "armpit of the universe" as somebody had once titled the largest settlement of this brown dust-ball of a planet? Perhaps another pass over the northwestern end of the Jundland Wastes would reveal to her the location of whoever had caused the sensation. She gently drew her sleek vessel into a long-drawn-out curve around the pillars of the Roiya Rift until she was heading northward again. Then she slowly followed the canyons toward the northwest for an hour, but the sensation did not repeat. It confirmed what she had already expected: whoever had caused the ripple in the Force was well trained and able to avoid detection. This description would only apply to a Jedi, perhaps even a Jedi Master. And she was certain: her probing had been noticed and interpreted correctly. If she left a trail obvious enough to follow, she might draw him out of hiding. After all, he would have to find out if he could continue to stay or if leaving would be the only way to prevent the Empire from hunting him down, or her, if it was a female.

* * *

The first of _Tatooine's_ twin suns had just risen above the horizon when Serina entered the outskirts of the wide-spread farming community of Anchorhead. The unpaved streets lay deserted and dusty; the huddled metal and stone structures of the central nexus of the settlement cast long shadows in the early morning light.

It had not taken long to find a suitable hiding place for her vessel. She had selected one of the many canyons at the south-western end of the Jundland Wastes, as close to the settlement as possible. Setting her ship down as far away from the mouth of the canyon as possible, she had spread a large sand-colored camo-netting over it and fastened the ends to several boulders. Then she had used the Force to dump several loads of sand onto the netting, blending the edges effectively with the surrounding desert.

When she had been certain that nobody would stumble upon her vessel accidentally, she had shouldered her bag and started her trip toward Anchorhead. Although it had been in the deep of the night, she had been able to make good progress. While using the Force to enhance her vision, she had kept a permanent focus on the sensations from the surrounding area.

After the first couple of hours, she had sensed some lifeforms just a few miles south of her. But they were apparently asleep and most likely moisture farmers, so Serina had continued further westward. About half an hour before sunrise, she had passed a low, long pourstone building just outside of Anchorhead. A quick glance at her datapad had identified it as Tosche Station. But from what she had sensed of the two lifeforms inside, they had quite obviously been occupied with more personal activities, so she had not bothered to stop there either but had continued toward the center of the far-spread community.

From the information, her datapad had provided regarding the small town, it sported only one hotel and a small boarding house as well as two cantinas. One of them, the Weary Traveler, was directly across from the boarding house. It was a one-story pourstone building with a large veranda out front. The shutters for the open window-front could be slid up above the porch to provide shade from the glare of _Tatooine's_ suns. Nights tended to be quite cold, therefore the shutters were still down when Serina approached the building.

There were only a few customers in the dimly lit room. An older human sat at a table in the far back staring sullenly into his drink. Two men sat at the bar watching some sports reports on the HoloNet display. All of them wore the typical loose-fitting garments of the local moisture farmers. A middle-aged woman with an apron around her waist stood behind the counter drying off several tube-shaped glasses and casting occasional glances at the screen. When Serina entered, she cursorily took stock of her new customer, before her gaze went back to watching the sports events.

Taking a seat near the entrance with a good view of the whole room, Serina waited patiently until the woman approached her table. Then she ordered a glass of Lomin ale and watched the news from _Imperial Center_ now flickering across the screen.

Three hours and two more drinks later, she had all the information she required. The shutters had been opened an hour prior and the cantina had started to fill up with its regular early morning customers. When the owner arrived to relieve the woman at the bar, Serina placed a generous amount of credits on her table and followed her outside. To accomplish her goals, she needed a job at that cantina and there was only one way to get it.

* * *

The craggy landscape just north of Anchorhead rolled past her, as she took the trip to Mos Eisley in her newly acquired, beat-up landspeeder the next day. It had not taken much to convince the waitress to take a few days off and introduce Serina as a replacement to the cantina's owner. But her use of the Force in doing so had certainly laid a clear trail for any Jedi to follow just as her exercise with the sand the night before. Depending on his or her choice of transportation, she expected somebody to show up within the next couple of days.

Until that time, she would have to move along with the mission Lord Vader had assigned her.

 _There had always been dissidents, insurgents, and rebels as long as the Empire had been in existence these past twelve years. At first - once the majority of the Jedi and their following had been eliminated - the small groups of rebels had just been a nuisance, but in the recent years, they had started to turn into a factor to be reckoned with. Somehow, they acquired more ships and supplies and appeared to be better organized with each passing year._

 _The time had come to get down to the root of the trouble. But in order to eradicate the problem once and for all, they would first have to find their various operational bases and discover the main leaders and supporters of the major groups. However, most rebel cells knew very little outside of their own operation. If you located one, its members hardly ever led you to find any others._

 _Military action could only ensue once a target had been pinpointed. And major operations could only be justified by prominent targets. Finding just those had become the focus of Serina's newest assignment. The weeks on_ Vjun _had been spent with concocting a plan to achieve just that._

 _Since the rebels often relied on smugglers to acquire the necessary supplies, they had analyzed all the reports on smuggling activities of the recent years found in the Imperial databanks. Then they had correlated them with data about the various rebel groups. And among the host of completely disjointed information, slowly a pattern had emerged. At the center thereof was a small group of smugglers, whose names had popped up repeatedly._

 _And among those names, one had immediately caught Serina's attention: the_ Ayers' Nest _. With an uncanny ability to avoid Imperial detention, they had been spotted close to several locations of rebel activities. Vader had noticed her reaction to the ship's name immediately. Quickly, she had told him about her time onboard and how their paths had parted on_ Circarpous IV _. From what she had discovered, the ship had escaped the Imperial scrutiny since it had just unloaded the last shipment at the spaceport and was lacking any smuggling goods when boarded a short time later._

 _Captain Ayers would provide her an easy access to the smuggler's network, if she found a way to contact him. Further research had finally provided her with two familiar names: Jaric, a human fence on_ Tatooine _, who had once been their contact for a whole load of converter replacement parts, and a Gotal freelancer by the name of Bolu Brok whom Serina remembered procuring some contracts for Captain Ayers during her time onboard. He was also known to work out of Mos Eisley._

 _Based hereon, they had decided to start her mission on the desert planet located on the_ Outer Rim _. When Vader had received information about some sort of experiment gotten out of hand on_ Falleen _and had left hastily, she had departed from_ Vjun _as well with the_ StarLady _and had completed her preparations._

 _The long travel hours to the other side of the galaxy had provided her with enough time to consider her_ _options regarding the pregnancy she had been forced to allow_ _. She was not about to let either Sith Lord get their hands on her child. With a feeling of amazement at the leading of the Force, she had pulled out the small holocron from her travel bag. Perhaps, it would show her a way to achieve just that purpose and at the same time retain her position at her master's side._

Although the building materials used in the construction of Mos Eisley did not differ much from those utilized for the much smaller Anchorhead, the huge disparity between both cities became obvious immediately. While the smaller town had become the hang-out for the offspring of the moisture farmers living in the deserts of the Jundland Wastes, the much larger city had become a hive of scum and villainy. Although there were also tourists from other parts of _Tatooine_ as well as off-planet - mainly rallying around the highlights of the so-called "New Quarter" of the sprawling town -, most visitors had other purposes in mind. And most of them weren't even close to legal.

The streets were populated mainly by residents on foot, while some also used rontos, dewbacks and other beasts of burden. Weaving in between them were landspeeders of all sorts and speederbikes, carrying spacers and merchants, fortune-hunters and gamblers, droids, and individuals of all species from across the known galaxy. At various spots, Serina noticed lone pairs of stormtroopers as well as officers of the local customs agency.

Nobody paid any attention to the young woman as she drove her landspeeder along Dune Street into town. She did not bother to stop at the Methane Fix Cantina - she doubted that any of the contacts she was looking for could be found there - but followed the Inner Curved Street toward the one place in Mos Eisley known as hotspot for criminal activity far beyond the limits of _Tatooine_ : Chalmun's Cantina. If either one of the two contacts she was looking for was in town, she would most likely meet him there.

After she had parked her speeder across the street from the entrance to the single-story building, she made her way through the small lobby into the main bar area. Although it was not even noon yet, the place was already crowded with shady characters of all sorts. A small band was playing some unfamiliar tunes with more rhythm than melody to it. The smoke hung low in the dimly lit room.

At the far end of the bar, Serina spotted a vacant spot beside the lumbering form of an Aquala. Ensuring that her black vest hid her weapons from inquisitive eyes, she worked her way through the assemblage of humans and alien counterparts. Then she stepped up to the counter and waited for the bartender to take notice of her.

Aware of the intense stare of the creature beside her, she turned to face the tusked biped. "Do you have a problem?" She glared at the green-skinned alien, placing as much acid in her voice as possible while invoking the Force to persuade him into taking the hint and leaving her alone. After a moment, he turned away with a grunt. Finally, the bartender approached and took her order.

Moments later, he returned with her drink. When he placed the tall glass with an undefinable liquid in front of her, she quickly placed her slender hand over his beefy one. "I'm looking for somebody," she informed him, using her abilities to invoke his help. Slowly, his expression changed from apprehensive to obliging. "The fellow's name is Bolu Brok. Do you know him?"

The bartender nodded. "Yeah, he's been here before. But I haven't seen him in some time. Why are you looking for him?"

Serina only smiled. "Just a business proposition," she dismissed the issue. "What about Jaric? Has he been around?" She could sense the Aquala beside her perk up at the mention of the fence.

"Jaric?" The bartender mulled the name over. "Doesn't ring a bell, but I can ask around if you want to."

"I'd appreciate that," she favored him with a smile as she released his hand and pulled the glass from his grasp. Then she took a sip of the powerful concoction. When the scruffy-looking human returned to the other end of the bar, Serina turned back to the alien beside her. "You know Jaric?"

"What if I do," the tusked creature responded deprecatingly.

Serina reached into her pocket and removed a handful of credits. "If the information is valid, I'd be willing to pay a good price for it." Then she pulled her vest aside and let her hand rest on her blaster. "But if you lie to me, trust me, I'll find you, anywhere," she added with a promising, mean smile on her face.

The Aquala raised his hands in a defensive gesture. "It's all right. You pay me, when you find him, ok?" he told her. "I saw him last night at the Krayt Dragon Lounge. Perhaps, he'll be there again today."

"The Krayt Dragon Lounge?" Serina repeated thoughtfully. Then she took a couple of the credits and placed them on the counter. "If I'll find him, there'll be more tonight." The green skinned alien slipped the money quickly into one of his pockets, casting a wary glance around to check if anybody had watched the exchange. Serina turned back to her drink, keeping an inconspicuous attention on the other patrons lining the bar. Apparently, the bartender was applying himself busily to the task she had given him. As he moved from one customer to the next and engaged them in quick conversations, he frequently cast meaningful glances in her direction. She would give him another hour before checking out the lead the Aquala had provided her with. Perhaps, this trip would prove to be more successful than she had expected.

* * *

The Krayt Dragon Lounge, known beyond the boundaries of _Tatooine_ for its Sabacc games and Swoop racing bets, was located further toward the center of the sprawling city. After passing through the entrance lobby into the dimly lit main bar room, Serina allowed her eyes to adjust as her gaze roamed the various booths and small private areas lining both sides of the surprisingly spacious inside. She slowly worked her way through the throng of humans and aliens, taking stock of the patrons seated around the many Sabacc and occasional Pazaak tables.

Among the various players at the main Sabacc table, she noticed a severely overweight human. The man had to be in his mid-forties but had it not been for the distinct human face above the triple chin and the two short stumps of legs protruding from underneath his bulging form, he could have easily been mistaken for a Hutt. The pile of credit chips in front of him was proof however that his gambling abilities were not to be underestimated despite his slug-like appearance.

Across from him, Serina noticed another fellow, closer to her own age. He was dark skinned with short, kinky hair. As he felt her gaze upon him, he looked up from his cards. For a moment, their eyes locked, but Serina quickly broke the contact and turned away toward the next table in her search for the dark-haired fence whom she had met so many years prior during her time with the _Ayers' Nest_. But none of the other humans turned out to be just that man, either.

After a quick glance at her chronometer, she got herself some Lomin ale at the bar and searched for an empty chair at one of the few none-gambling tables. The two Weequays were so totally wrapped up in their own silent form of communication, that she didn't get any attention from them except for a quick nod of approval as she sat down across from them. She turned her attention to the Swoop race that had just started on the oversized display behind the bar but continued to scan the customers out of the corner of her eye. It was still early in the afternoon. To be on time for her shift at the Weary Traveler she would have to leave shortly after nightfall. With a silent sigh, she braced herself for another exercise in patience.

"May I sit down?"

Serina had been so concentrated on the two entrances to the large bar that she had not noticed the young, dark-skinned man's approach. For a moment, she hesitated; then she nodded in approval. "Sure, if they don't mind." She motioned toward the couple across from her, but this time the Weequays did not bother to interrupt their silent exchange for even an approving nod.

"Not in the mood for some gambling?" her new acquaintance inquired as he settled down into the chair beside her.

Serina shook her head. Hopefully, she could manage to disperse his interest quickly. "Not my kind of distraction. I only come here sometimes to watch the Swoop races. Mos Espa is just too far away and I enjoy it much more on the big screen than at home." Then she turned the tables on the inquisitive stranger. "But you seem to be quite good at Sabacc. Do you play professionally?"

The young man shook his head. "No, I just pass the time between jobs with it. If I have enough credits, that is," he added with a crooked smile.

"So, what kind of jobs do you usually occupy your time with, if you don't mind me asking?" It was quite doubtful that whatever he did engage in could be categorized as legal, so perhaps this conversation would not turn out to be a total waste of time, after all. Perhaps, he even knew Jaric and could establish the contact she required. With an inviting smile, she leaned back into her seat and turned her full attention to the handsome, young stranger.

* * *

With _Tatooine's_ suns close to reaching their summit, the Weary Traveler was quickly filling up with its regular noontime customers. The shutters of the window-front had already been opened some time prior and several of the customers enjoyed the shade provided while keeping a close eye on the goings-on along the busy main street or watching the local and off-world feeds on the large HoloNet display.

With the owner gone for most of the afternoon, Serina had offered to tend to the cantina for that time. So far, the Jedi had not shown up yet, but she was convinced she would not have to wait much longer. With everybody adequately supplied with drinks, she allowed her attention to be drawn to the various news reports just replacing the sports events from moments earlier. Stories about a new Moff who got appointed to a nearby sector, a commentary about a successful crack-down on some smugglers by the Imperial sector patrol and gossip and tittle-tattle regarding some scandals at the Emperor's court took turns with official anti-rebel and pro-military propaganda straight from the desks of the Commission for the Preservation of the New Order.

For a moment, her thoughts wandered back to her conversation with the handsome stranger the day prior. Even without her using the Force, he had been more than eager to disclose his life's story to her. Of course, he was a smuggler, just as she had surmised, and had been more than interested in her tale of how she had ended up stranded on an out-of-the-way planet with a few crates of valuables. She had felt him perk up his ears even more when she had confided to him her desire to contact the _Ayers' Nest_ , her employer from years back. Of course, he had tried to not show his interest openly, but it had been quite obvious, even without her sensibility to the Force.

"Say, are you serving the tables today or do we have to get our drinks ourselves?" a slightly aggravated voice drew her attention back to some new customers who had just stepped up to the veranda and had settled down at the last vacant table there. She quickly rushed over to the middle-aged man and the teenage boy dressed in the typical outfits of the local moisture farmers.

"I'm sorry, I was a little bit distracted," she apologized with a sheepish grin on her face. "What can I get you?"

A few minutes later, she placed the ordered drinks in front of them. Just as she started to turn and head back to the bar, her gaze met the young boy's as he tore away his attention from some report about exploits of the Imperial Navy to look up at her. It caused her to draw up short. For long moments, their eyes locked before she forced herself to turn away. She was absolutely certain she had never seen the boy before. But those eyes and the concentrated expression they depicted, she would recognize anywhere and anytime. They appeared to her in her dreams and her whole body reacted with eager anticipation whenever she looked forward to seeing them again. But this just couldn't be! This boy had nothing at all in common with her dark master. Or did he?

As she returned to the counter in the middle of the room, her thoughts went head over heels. How old was the boy? Perhaps eleven, twelve, at the most. She listened closely to their conversation. Was the older man his father? She carefully compared their faces. It was possible, but somehow, she had her doubts. Then she concentrated on their presence in the Force. While there was nothing remarkable about the older man, the boy's hidden talents became obvious immediately. There was a definite connection to the Force, totally untrained, but the potential was great, probably far greater than her own. She would have to find out their names. Perhaps, they would confirm the suspicion her mind had just conjured up.

A wave from a table at the far back of the barroom brought her attention back to reality. Apparently, she had overlooked another new customer. _This kind of absentmindedness will get me killed if I'm not careful!_ she chided herself as she approached the older man dressed in a dark brown robe, his bearded face barely visible underneath his pulled-up hood. "What can I get you?" she inquired as she tried to get a better glance at his features.

"Just some water, please." A gentle voice informed her, barely loud enough to reach her ears. When she turned back to the bar to fill his order, he suddenly leaned forward. His hand shot out from underneath his robe and grabbed her arm. "Leave the boy alone, he is of no import to you." The voice was still gentle, but filled with a peculiar tone as the persuasive power of his words surged against her mind.

For a moment, she froze in place as she used the anger coursing through her to boost her mental shields. Then she jerked her hand free of his grasp. "You are in no position to tell me what to do, old man," she told him with a cold stare, her voice quivering with barely contained fury.

"Don't be so sure of yourself," he replied and settled back into his chair. His hand caused his robe to slip away from his belt as it came to rest on his lightsaber, the warning obvious and hard to be disregarded.

Serina knew when it was better to not push her case. If this was the Jedi she had been waiting for and if her suspicion as to his identity proved true, she would certainly be no match for his fighting abilities. So, she quickly reigned in her anger. "Meet me at 2100 outside. Then we can talk about it," she told him without expounding the subject any further. Then she turned and headed for the bar to get his drink.

* * *

The hours until the arrival of the older waitress scheduled to replace her for the night shift dragged on, her thoughts preoccupied with the upcoming meeting with the Jedi. His obvious concern for the boy had hardened her suspicion as to the youth's identity. Her inquiries among the other patrons as to the boy's name had turned her hunch into dead certainty.

Leaving a note for the owner, informing him that she would not be able to work the next night shift due to some private business she had to attend to, she left the Weary Traveler through the side entrance. The small alley separating the cantina from the neighboring business became shrouded again in near darkness as the door she had just stepped through snapped shut behind her. But she did not require any illumination to sense the man waiting for her at the corner of the building. Unlike a few hours prior, he no longer bothered to hide his presence in the Force. Clasping her hand tightly around the lightsaber at her belt, she quickly covered the few meters to the mouth of the alley and stepped up to the shrouded figure.

Most of the stores lining the main thoroughfare in front of the cantina had already closed down for the night and - except for a few stragglers still busy acquiring whatever supplies they needed - the street was deserted. The shutters of the open window-front had been closed shortly before she had left and only the light of the smallest of _Tatooine's_ three moons and the dim lamps lining the veranda of the cantina provided some sparse illumination for the unpaved, dusty road.

For a long time, the older man just gazed intently at her. Finally, he spoke up, "Heed my advice: leave the boy alone. He is of no import."

With a shrewd expression, Serina replied, "That's what you told me before. But if he is truly so unimportant, then why are you watching over him?" When it became obvious that she would not get an answer to her question, she continued, "One of our customers told me that his name is Skywalker, Luke Skywalker, and that the man he was with is his uncle, not his father. I was wondering," she gave the older man an appraising glance, closely watching his reaction, "if he is related to that famous Skywalker kid that won the Boonta Eve Classic some twenty-five years prior. Didn't he become a famous Jedi Knight during the Clone Wars, the so-called "Chosen One"?"

Through the Force, she could sense a slight unease in the Jedi, but he did not allow his facial expression to betray any concern her words might have caused. With a shrug of his shoulders, he casually replied, "I can't tell you anything about that, but Skywalker is a pretty common name out on the _Rim_."

Serina nodded slowly in agreement, "Of course, a pretty common name indeed. But still, I might just check into that issue some more. Force-sensitivity does run in the family. So, they might be related after all. But," she gave him another scrutinizing glance, "perhaps you know much more than you are trying to make me believe." For long moments, she allowed her assumption to hang between them before she added, "Now if you are hiding anything from me regarding the boy, I'll find out the truth yet. I'll be keeping an eye on you." Without another word, she turned away from him and headed across the street toward the boarding house.

Deep in thought, Ben followed her with his gaze as she entered the two-storied pourstone building. What should he do? He had to figure out who and what she was. Who had trained her? Her strong connection to the Force had been obvious from even before he had entered the cantina early that afternoon. Another Jedi who had escaped Order 66 and gone into hiding? Although possible, he somehow doubted it. And she was hardly an Inquisitor or dark Jedi and certainly no Sith. He had sensed a great amount of darkness in her, but her whole presence did not reflect the kind of evil connected with those kinds of Force users.

And yet, she could be an agent of the Emperor. If she followed up on her suspicions, she might discover the truth he had done his best to hide for these past twelve years. It would leave him with only two options: eliminate her or grab Luke and leave _Tatooine_ as quickly as possible. While the first was certainly no option for the Jedi Master's conscience and would certainly just lead to others showing up in search of her, the second might prove just as unfeasible. Owen Lars would not be easily convinced and, aside from the risk of being discovered by the Emperor's henchmen in their search for a new hiding place, he certainly lacked the funds for such an action as well.

No, he had to first find out who she was. Perhaps that knowledge would provide him with another option, more feasible than those he had just considered. And if she truly intended to put her uttered threat into action, he could lure her away from Anchorhead to accomplish just that. Sensing her scrutinizing gaze upon him from one of the windows on the upper level of the boarding house, he pulled his robe tightly around his body and headed toward the stables at the far end of the street.

* * *

 _An eopie! How can you ride an eopie from Anchorhead to Bestine and beyond?_ Serina still had to shake her head at such idiosyncrasy in the Jedi Master. It had taken them a whole day to cover the distance from the Weary Traveler to the north-western end of the Jundland Wastes. He had laid a clear trail for her to follow. His intention to lure her to his home far beyond the settlements spread out sparsely south of the Great Mesra Plateau had been obvious from the start. And he was certainly aware that she was following him in her landspeeder, although she had been careful to stay out of his line of sight, using her macrobinoculars and the Force to stay on his trail.

At least, the slow travel speed of the midsized animal had allowed her to take a few short naps throughout the day without the Jedi getting too far ahead of her. By the time, she had drawn nigh to Carnthout, the suns had come up in her back. Now they were already close to the horizon directly ahead of her as she neared the mountain range at the western end of the Jundland Wastes.

Suddenly, Serina brought her speeder to an abrupt halt. She reached out through the Force for the presence of the older man. Yes, her instinct had proved accurate once again. His movement had stopped. Apparently, he had reached his destination. She lifted her macrobinoculars and searched the rock formations ahead of her. Nothing moved in between or on the craggy cliffs that rose steeply out of the rolling waves of the sand dunes. Again, her gaze swept across the forefront of the mountain range when a reflection of the setting suns on some metal object drew her attention to a vaporator located on the top of a bluff. Right beside it, a small synstone hut was barely visible, blending in perfectly with the wall of rock behind it.

* * *

The first of _Tatooine's_ suns had just vanished beyond the horizon when Serina restarted her speeder to cover the remaining distance to the foot of the bluff. Some faint lights had become visible high above her as she parked her vehicle at the mouth of a rocky slope leading upward. With a swift motion, she slipped out onto the sand-covered bedrock and removed her lightsaber from her belt. Then she edged forward slowly, relying solely on the Force to pick her way up the narrow path in the deepening darkness.

Finally, she reached the top of the cliff at the back of the squat building. Soft-footed, she skirted the vaporator and pressed herself against the synstone wall right beside the stable. For a moment, the breathing of the animal inside changed as it sniffed at the unfamiliar scent, but she used the Force to quickly divert its attention away from her. Then she moved along the wall toward the front door.

When Serina rounded the last corner, suddenly a hooded figure blocked her way, and, with a buzzing sound, a bright blue beam emerged, piercing the darkness between them. With a press of her thumb, her own orange blade crackled into existence, as she moved away from the wall into the open space in front of the house. As if acting in silent agreement, both assumed the most basic shii-cho stance, turning the whole exchange into a training exercise instead of a true fight. Apparently, the former Jedi general wanted to test her, evaluate her fighting abilities and discover how she gained access to the Force. Serina would do him the favor, although she was fully aware that she stood no chance at all to win a life and death match with the experienced Jedi Master.

When Kenobi finally attacked, it was with the fluid motions of the Determination Form. The moves required to parry and attack in return had become second nature to Serina in the first year with her dark master. There was no need to draw on the dark side for this, to release the small furnace hidden away in a secluded part of her soul. All it required was to draw on the living Force around her, to let it guide her moves, anticipating the strikes that Kenobi would employ next.

After having exchanged a few blows with neither of them giving way, just moving back and forth within a few feet of space, Kenobi started to alter his style, including elements of Makashi into his attacks, slowly pushing her backward toward the edge of the bluff. In response, Serina started to pull her defense closer to her body, employing some of the Soresu moves she had picked up in the years of practicing with her Dark Lord. As long as she was able to deflect the forceful blows while slowly retreating backward, she could refrain from tapping into the dark side.

When she was just another foot from the edge, she chose to not block a swing of his blade toward her right leg but leaped instead into a forward roll that brought her away from his blade and further to his right. As she jumped back to her feet, she swept her own blade backward toward his unprotected right side, forcing him into an underhanded block. A swift step to his left and a halfway turn brought Kenobi back into facing her as Serina pivoted toward him bouncing away from his last parry.

A short nod reflected his approval of her move. Then he changed his style once more, increasing the speed and the level of difficulty further and incorporating elements of the most aggressive styles into his moves. His strikes turned into a blur which Serina was barely able to deflect. This level was far beyond her normal abilities. Only the dark side would enable her to last even for a short time against this onslaught. Without further hesitation, she released the small furnace of dark desires, allowing the strongest emotions she was capable of to fill her, granting her a much vaster grip on the living Force she felt around her. As she drew it into herself, wresting it to do her will, time around her slowed down. Again, she could perceive his strikes as he was just starting to execute them, allowing her to parry them in time, yet still, she had to give way, had to move backward along the side of the house until there was no more space to retreat even further. Even with all the additional precognition the dark side granted her, with all the increased speed and strength it provided, she was no match at all for the Jedi Master who had once defeated the most promising of all Jedi. And that even though the Chosen One had already succumbed to the lure of the dark side and had not yet been confined to the armored body suit that had become his prison ever since that fight.

With her back pressed against the wall behind her, her own blade only inches from her body moving right and left to deflect the blows thrust at her with lightning speed, their lightsabers finally entangled and with a powerful twist of his wrist he sent her weapon spinning away into the darkness behind him. As his blade hovered motionless in front of her face, she bowed her head in defeat, spreading her hands far to her side as the signal of her surrender.

With a scrutinizing gaze, he evaluated the truthfulness of her capitulation. Then he took a step backward, extinguished his lightsaber and reattached it to his belt. Using the Force to retrieve her weapon from the darkness now only dimly lit by the light from a few small windows on this side of the hut, he caught the elegant, yet somewhat antique handle from the air. Switching it back on, he gave it a quick over-all check.

"You didn't build this. It is much too old for that. Whom did it belong to?" he finally asked her.

"To some Jedi Knight. He had once befriended a young woman on _Taanab_ by the name of Tantra. She had loved him, but him being a Jedi, they never ended up as a couple. She had latent Force abilities and he tried to teach her at least a little bit about how to use them. When he had to leave _Taanab_ , he gave her the lightsaber as a going-away present. He never returned after that. I met Tantra when she was already an old woman and before she died, she made me take it." There was no need to reveal what had happened to that specific Jedi just a few years prior. And it was certainly better if Obi-Wan never found out about her involvement in the old man's demise.

"Then you should preserve it well." He switched it off and handed the lightsaber back to her, certain that she had no intention of attacking him. "Let's get inside and talk."

After attaching the hilt to her belt, she followed his invitation and stepped inside the squarish hut.

* * *

Though the sparring had revealed to him several interesting facts about the young woman, it had left him with even more questions open than answered. When he had increased the pressure in their fight, she had finally resorted to strong emotions, tapping into the dark side of the Force. Yet they had been quite unusual emotions, totally out of character even for a Dark Jedi and most certainly not like any Sith he had ever heard about. He had felt very little anger, rage or hate in her, just a consuming lust for sensations completely unfamiliar to him. He could not be certain from the short exchange, but if he was to guess he would assume that whosoever had kindled that kind of desire in the young woman had to be an accomplished dark-sider, perhaps even a Sith.

Could she be serving the Emperor? Possible, but she was definitely not an Inquisitor. Those were in general accomplished warriors able to get even him into dire straits if he was not careful in a fight. The young girl's abilities were far from that. There had also been rumors of other Force-users in the malignant ruler's employ, specially trained as assassins or undercover agents. Although that would be more in accord with what he had sensed in her, but - even if she did not realize who he truly was - why would an agent of the Emperor be just sitting calmly in the small abode of a Jedi? Order 66 was still in place since the end of the Clone Wars proclaiming all Jedi traitors with a death warrant on their heads. Would she not, immediately upon finding him, have headed to the nearest outpost for reinforcements, informing the authorities of her discovery, ensuring that he would be brought to justice?

But she had followed him as he had expected and had voluntarily submitted to their sparring match, although she had to have known that her abilities were no match at all for his own. Who was she and why was she here? And how great was the danger she posed to his task of keeping young Luke save from the Emperor and the Sith Lord his own father had turned into? How could he prevent her from finding out more about the boy beyond what she had discovered already?

Obi-Wan motioned her to take a seat on the single chair placed on the far side of the small round table in front of his bed. Then he placed two glasses with water from his vaporator on the table and settled down in his sleeping alcove gazing at her intently. For long moments, neither of them spoke.

When Serina finally addressed him, he had to work hard to not let the alarm her words caused register on his face. "So, you are the famous Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, general and war hero of the Clone Wars. I am really pleased to finally make your acquaintance in person." How was it possible that she had recognized him? When the Jedi purge had started, she could not have been more than nine or ten years old. And yet, her words were not a mere assumption, they spoke of certainty, of there being no doubt in her mind at all as to his identity.

Serina had sensed his alarm through the Force. He certainly had felt her use of the dark side during their match just moments earlier and was obviously trying to assess what kind of threat she might pose to his safety and that of the boy he was evidently protecting from the Empire. She would have to convince him that she needed his help so desperately that any thought of betraying him to her dark master could not be further from her mind than at this moment. But how to breach that subject, how would he react if she told him whom she served and who had fathered the unborn child she was carrying within her?

For a moment, she allowed her attention to stray from the bearded man across from her, turning it inward to the barely discernable presence inside of her, just having implanted into the inside of her womb, just getting ready to develop a heartbeat. That instant, she forgot everything around her as a rapt smile softened her features and her hands caressed her still flat and well-trained belly. It would not stay that way during the weeks to come. She had about six, at the most seven months to complete her mission and at the same time solve the disturbing problem of saving this child from the clutches of its father and the Emperor.

As a sobering expression replaced the smile on her face, she turned her attention back to the Jedi Master who had watched her attentively. From the look on his face, he had drawn the right conclusion from her little gesture, so typical for any pregnant woman in the galaxy. In the wink of an eye, the die was cast. She would stick with the truth as much as she deemed necessary to attain his help, but she would not reveal to him the child's father. Most likely, he would refuse to believe it anyways after what he had seen last of his once best friend on the brink of that lava stream.

"It appears you have an advantage over me. So why don't you tell me your name for a start?"

Serina gladly obliged. "My name is Serina, Serina Wanders."

"Glad to meet you, Serina. And please, don't bother with the name I used to bear. For the past twelve years, everybody around here has known me as Ben. Just call me that as well. I guess I don't have to tell you much about myself. You seem to know my history quite well. So why don't you tell me a little bit about yourself."

And Serina did. Accompanied by some thoughtful nods and every now and then a few quick questions from Obi-Wan, she gave him a mostly short, but sometimes also more detailed account of her life, from the visions of her childhood, the death of her parents, her teacher's training in preparation for the Imperial Navy to Tantra's tutoring in the Force and the old woman's death in the year that she finally ended up leaving _Taanab_. Then she told him about her encounter with the shipjackers and about hiring on with some smugglers to finally escape from _Formos_ where they had crashed. "I worked for Captain Ayers for a few months until we got separated in an Imperial crack-down on the smuggling trade on _Circarpous IV_. And there he found me." It was obvious that she was no longer talking about the smuggler captain.

"He?" Obi-Wan inquired when she hesitated for a moment.

"The one leading that crack-down operation, the Emperor's right-hand man, the one even the Imperial admirals fear." As she saw realization as to whom she was talking about dawning on the Jedi Master's face, she added, "Darth Vader himself." From the expression on the older man's face, he appeared exactly aware of who was behind the mask and body armor. She could almost see the pictures his mind had to be dragging back up from twelve years back, from that fateful fight, from the events that had preceded it and from those that had followed in its wake. The pain those memories still invoked was palpable: the unspeakable loss of all his fellow Jedi including all the younglings at the Temple whom Anakin had murdered in cold blood, the unfathomable disappointment he must have felt over the path his former padawan had chosen and the sadness at the death of Padmé, Anakin's wife. But as quickly as the pain rose from those memories, just as quickly Obi-Wan allowed it to pass away again, letting it go as he would any other attachment.

"How did he find you?" he inquired when his mind returned to the here and now.

"Sort of the same way I found you. I have probably always been able to sense the people through the Force, but Tantra showed me how to use that ability consciously, how to become aware of the living Force around me. When a commotion arose at the spaceport, I used that ability to find out what was going on. That's when I touched something dark and cold and utterly evil. Of course, he had sensed my touch and came looking for me. I wouldn't have escaped even if I had tried. He realized that I had no Jedi training and was, more or less, a blank slate ready to be used in whatever way he saw fit. So, he offered to train me." For a moment, a dreamy smile played around her lips, as the scene from several years back appeared before her inner eye.

"And you accepted? After you had felt what he is?" Kenobi's bewilderment only affected a short laugh from Serina.

"What else should I have done? It was that or getting killed. Besides, it had always been my desire to learn more about the Force. And if any other Jedi survived the great purge, they went into hiding just like you did. What were my chances of ever finding one? Now," and the expression on her face hardened perceptibly, "don't think me naïve. Of course, I knew at that time what he is. And I knew that he wasn't training me to do me a favor, but to profit from my abilities and that my life would be forfeit the moment I failed him. I've lived with that awareness for the past five years."

"So, he started to train you?" Ben prompted her to continue with her story.

"Yes. He found out quickly what you certainly noticed too: I am no fighter and probably never will be, no matter how much training I get. By the time, he found me, I had learned to use a blaster and some hand to hand combat, but I had never used a lightsaber before. And no matter what I use, I am really reluctant to attack, even so he tried to change that," and there were some painful memories connected with that thought, that much was obvious. "I can defend myself now, even for some time against a Jedi Knight, but I stand no chance against a Jedi Master like you or against someone like Lord Vader.

But he had other plans for me, anyway. I told you that I can sense people easily. There is another talent I have: I can make people do what I want them to do. I can make them tell me even their deepest secrets and by the time they realize what they have told me, it's too late already. He made me hone that ability and he sent me to the academy on _Prefsbelt_. I graduated there as had been my dream throughout my childhood. In the official records, I hold the rank of captain in the Imperial Navy, specialized in communications, and, above that, I'm part of Lord Vader's advisory team.

There is a codename he uses for me: Targetfinder. If he suspects treason in somebody or a tendency to rebel, he sends me to check them out. I can work on any ship, in any governmental office, with any rank my age would support. For some time, I was hunting down Jedi artifacts. And now I am on a new mission."

Again, she hesitated, placing her hand protectively over her belly. "I have a little more than half a year to accomplish it. By then I will be in my seventh month. He expects me to return and have the baby and then he'll have to give it to the Emperor. Or he'll find some way to withhold it from his master and to train the child himself." Her face contorted from the pain and grief she felt at that thought, mingled with a fierce anger and protectiveness toward her unborn child. "I will not let that happen!" She spat the words out forcefully. "They are not going to twist my child to the dark side. They will not use it in their corrupted scheming. You must help me find a way, you are my only hope, please help me!" With tears streaking down her face, she leaned forward and grabbed his hand, squeezing it with the strength of a desperate mother.

With her touch, the turmoil in her soul washed over Obi-Wan. For a moment, he accepted the overwhelming emotions. Then he gently extricated his hand from her grasp. The short contact had convinced him of her honesty, and of her desperation. But despair was a bad advisor. They would have to discuss the situation rationally. Perhaps a way could be found. After all, had they not been able to hide the fact that Padmé had given birth before her death from the Emperor and Vader?

But first, there was one more question he just had to ask, "And who is the father?"

"I'm sorry. I'm not at liberty to give you his name. It's better for you and for me, and for the child also." A small sad smile softened her face. "Perhaps, one day I'll be able to tell you, but not right now."

For a moment, Obi-Wan considered what she had told him. Then he got up and picked up one of the blankets from his bed. "It is getting late. You are quite welcome to stay and get some rest." He motioned to the alcove behind him. "Please use my bed. I will be outside. In the morning, I will let you know my decision."

Serina gladly accepted the invitation. She would try to get some rest, although she already dreaded the return of the nightmares her mind had been dredging up every time she closed her eyes for the past few weeks.

* * *

Nights in the desert tend to get quite cold. But the Jedi Master did not even notice as he started to immerse himself in a deep meditation. Leaning with his back against the wall beside the door into his hut, he considered if and how he should and could help the young woman now resting quietly inside. There were still many questions left unanswered. Who had fathered the child she was carrying? What kind of relationship did she have to the man he had once called his brother? He had not felt any fear in her when she had talked about him. Though she was despairing at the thought of her child being corrupted by either Sith Lord, she apparently put no blame on the Emperor or Vader for planning on doing just that. And she seemed to feel no remorse about spying on people for the benefit of her master. There was much darkness in her, but it had not consumed her, at least not yet.

The Force would have to show him how to proceed. He emptied his mind of all he had heard: of the memories from twelve years prior that her story had brought back to mind; of the emotions connected with those memories; the feelings she had imparted to him through her touch; the worries regarding what her knowledge about the boy he was watching over and himself might imply for his future actions; the nearly impossible task she had requested his help for. As he let go of them one after another, he became one with the Force around him, allowing it to flow through him, to reveal to him his best way of action.

Suddenly, an anguished outcry from inside the hut interrupted his meditation. As he rushed inside, unsure what might have caused such pain in the young woman, he was surprised to find her fast asleep, tossing and turning with whichever fight was playing out in her dream. He pulled the chair into the middle of the room, where he could easily keep an eye on her, and settled down into it. Talking in her sleep, she might reveal much more to him than she perhaps ever would while awake.

"What have I done? It's all my fault! I shouldn't have come! Perhaps ... perhaps they'd still be alive! Why, why...?" Bitter sobs raked her body as she continued in a childlike voice, "Yes, Daddy, but I'm so sorry, I came too late and made everything only worse. I'm so very, very sorry!" The tears were streaking down her face even in sleep. "No, Daddy, no! Don't leave me!"

Slowly, her sobs subsided as her mind moved on to what appeared to be a quite different, not that far away memory. Her voice sounded much older now, filled with a fierce determination, her body rigid with the intensity of the remembered moment. "Yes, my Lord, I do. I learned about the Sith, too. The Sith have always fascinated me. _You_ have always fascinated me. Your will is my command, master. I will not disappoint you."

Then her body relaxed as yet another scene replaced the previous one, her voice now shrewd and full of allusions. "Please, master, his actions against me caused this whole mess. And this setup was my plan. I want to finish it, if I may." Then in a softer voice as a longing expression creased her face, "He is everything to me, my life, my future, my all." Then a fierce decisiveness harshened her next words. "But if I ever see or hear from you again, I will most certainly hunt you down and kill you. There will not be a second chance." More tossing about followed, her hands moving in accord with a fight now playing out inside her head. Her body tensed up again and she declared viciously, "You should have heeded my advice!"

For several minutes, the young woman relaxed visibly, her breathing evening out. Then her subconscious conjured up another memory, her face taking on a scornful expression. "Yes, you contacted me. That was your first mistake. Sending your father to meet me was your second. There will not be a third." The contempt deepened as she added, "So, you tried to deceive me? You truly think that kind of excuse will work? My master does not take kindly to deception and neither do I."

As the disdain drained from her face, it was replaced by an expression of longing mingled with worry. "Master, something is bothering you, has been, ever since we arrived. Is it something I should know about?" The worry deepened as her mind replayed whatever answer she had received. "Perhaps it was just bad timing during the past years. There weren't that many opportunities, after all." During the following minutes, various expressions flashed over her face as she again lived through what had followed that conversation: utter fulfillment alternated with worry, utmost concentration with easy relaxation. Finally, her body stiffened, her hands protectively resting on her abdomen, as she concluded, "With this purpose accomplished, when am I to leave for my mission?" The answer she had been given caused an apologetic smile to appear on her face, "Not as pleasant as it usually is, my master."

Then she turned away from him and curled up into a fetal position. Her breathing grew even and her presence in the Force, up to that point a well of dark churning emotions, smoothed out as she finally drifted deeper into a truly invigorating sleep.

* * *

The next morning, the clattering of dishes from inside the hut roused the Jedi Master from his place of meditation where he had spent the rest of the night once Serina had been sound asleep. The first sun had just risen in the east; the second one would not be far behind. As he stepped inside through the side door, he found the young woman busy preparing some breakfast for them from the meager supplies she had discovered in his pantry.

"You live quite a frugal life out here," she greeted him cheerily as she carried flatbreads, pallies and a few stripes of jerked dewback meat to the small table in front of the bed and placed them beside two glasses with fresh water. "I hope you don't mind me raiding your pantry, but I'm starving," she added sheepishly, as she sat down on the bed. Then she broke off a good-sized hunk of flatbread and bit into it. "But don't worry, I'll make it up to you. I have enough credits with me, so you can get new supplies when we return to Anchorhead."

"That's all right, I don't mind," he ensured her as he settled down in the chair across from her and picked up one of the juicy fruits. "Have you slept well?"

Serina favored him with a warm smile. "I guess so. At least I feel more rested than I have in quite some time. Perhaps, it's the peacefulness out here. So totally unlike _Imperial Center_ or many other places I have been at lately." After a few more bites of the meat, she added. "Have you come to a decision?" Expectantly, she gazed at him, worry about receiving a negative response tightening her features.

"Yes, but let me first ask you a few more questions. Why don't you just leave? Fly to the _Unknown Regions_ or find yourself a small planet on the _Outer Rim_ far away from _Coruscant_ , from the Emperor and Vader. Have your child and raise it there. I can show you how to become invisible in the Force. Not even the Emperor should be able to find you, as long as you refrain from using your abilities."

Serina sadly shook her head. "No, that's not an option. I don't want to betray my master or leave him. Besides, he would find me, anywhere. And when he does, he'd kill me. You know how ruthless he is with those he feels betrayed by. And he'd take the child. No, he has to believe that the child is dead. Only then will the child be safe! And I have to return and continue working for him. But my thoughts must not betray me! Now I know there are ways to accomplish that, but I cannot do it alone. That's what I need your help for." Again, her voice had taken on a pleading despair. Anybody not as strong minded as him would have succumbed to her persuasive powers, although he was not sure if she was even aware of what she was doing. From what she had told him, that had been one of her innate abilities from her childhood on. An ability that Vader had most certainly been eager to employ in his striving for even more power than he already commanded.

"Though I agree that we need to find a way to protect your child from both Sith Lords, yet if you can't betray your master, why withhold the child from him? Isn't that already a form of betrayal?" Obi-Wan pressed on in an attempt to better understand what kind of motivation lay behind her request.

"He would certainly see my action that way. That's why he must never find out the truth. But I'm not really betraying him. You see: if the Emperor gets the child, he'll raise it to one day replace Vader. He has been seeking a replacement right from the start. But so far, my master has been able to eliminate all those that threatened his position. He would have to do the same with my child. And if he doesn't succeed, he'll die in the attempt.

But if he manages to make the Emperor believe that the child is dead, he'll raise it to one day aid him in overthrowing his master and becoming the ruling Sith Lord. He has been working hard at achieving just that for the past twelve years. After all, it's the way of the Sith: always two of them: one to embody power and one to crave it. But I am afraid the Emperor is much more powerful than Vader will ever be. So, that attempt would most likely end with his and the child's death. Now, I'd pose a danger to him, since I'd be always aware that the child lives. He would have to kill me to make sure I don't betray him to the Emperor, even unwittingly.

Either way: the child dies or Vader dies or both. And my life would be forfeit pretty much from the time of giving birth. If I withhold the child, I'll be able to save both of them and my life hopefully as well. How can that be a betrayal?"

Though Obi-Wan now understood her reasoning, he still had no clue as to how she wanted to achieve her goal. "Before I agree to anything, I have to know what kind of help from my side you are talking about."

Serina nodded her understanding. "Of course, you would want to know that first." She removed a small cubical object from a pouch on her belt and handed it to the surprised Jedi Master. "I discovered this during my treasure hunt for Jedi artifacts. My instincts told me to hide it from my master, but I could not imagine why at that time. When I got ready for my current mission, I found myself slipping it into my bag. I had a feeling I would need it and I am glad I brought it along. On the way to _Tatooine_ , the gatekeeper, Jahon, has shown me a way to accomplish what I have in mind."

Then she spent several minutes explaining to him the plan she had forged since Vader had first told her about the Emperor's directive and which she had done everything in her power to hide during their interactions. "So, you see, I can prepare most of that myself," she finally concluded, "but the last sealing of those memories, the imprinting of the trigger for their release, somebody else has to accomplish that or it will not work."

For long moments, Obi-Wan contemplated what he had just heard. Yes, what she had in mind, might work. And if it could be accomplished with her memories of giving birth to a living child instead of a dead one, then the same could be done with her memories of the boy whom she had so quickly identified as strong in the Force and of himself as the boy's guardian. Only if she agreed to forget those as well would he be willing to comply with her request.

When he told her so, Serina replied with a deep sigh of relief, "Of course, I had planned on including those memories anyways, even if you hadn't made that a condition. I would never betray Luke to my master." Then she got up and brought the plates and cups into the small kitchen at the rear of the hut. When she returned to the front room, she informed him, "I'll have to head back to Anchorhead now. There are still quite a few preparations to be made for my upcoming mission. But I'll be back by nightfall tomorrow. Then we can talk some more. Feel free to use the holocron while I'm gone. It will show you exactly what needs to be done."

As Obi-Wan watched the landspeeder disappear into the glaring _Tatooinian_ noon, he couldn't help a feeling of unease sweep over him. Could he really trust her to not betray him upon returning to Anchorhead? Even if she proved as truthful has he had perceived her to be, had he promised too much? Was, what the young woman had proposed, truly possible? And he still didn't know what kind of relationship she had to the Sith Lord his former padawan had turned into. Her sleep-talking from the previous night had given rise to a suspicion, that was rather absurd indeed. And yet, he was now absolutely certain that there was much more to her relationship with Vader than the young woman was trying to make him believe.


	5. The Root of Darkness

**The Root of Darkness**

(7 BBY)

Even before Serina entered the small rented room in the boarding house, she sensed that somebody had been there during her absence. The disorder that greeted her confirmed her premonition. Had they found what she had hidden among her meager belongings for just that purpose? A quick examination of the concealed safety box at the bottom of the storage chest proved that somebody had done just that. _Good_ , she told herself, _that should get the ball rolling._

As she changed into an outfit more appropriate for her cantina job, she considered her next move. Apparently, the hints she had dropped during her trip to Mos Eisley two days prior had reached the appropriate targets. The small Durindfire gem they had taken from her room would certainly give enough support to her story that they'd be willing to talk to her. If she played her cards just right, the next stop would be the _Ayers' Nest_. Her "employer" from five years back would certainly be more than slightly interested in what she had to offer.

* * *

Although the cantina was open around the clock, its clientele followed unwritten rules of ebb and flow. By the time her shift was nearing its end, most of the regular customers had already left. Only three tables remained occupied.

At the one in the farthest back corner, an older fellow was nursing his fourth or fifth lum ale. She had met him already during her first work-shift at the cantina. From what he had told her, his wife had died some months back and he just couldn't bear the loneliness of his home, so he drowned his misery at the cantina, night after night.

Then there was a small group of younger fellows, just barely come of age. From their sometimes pretentious discourses she had concluded that one of them had managed to join the Imperial Navy and this was his going away party. Just like the older man, they would probably stay till the early morning hours, but they were of no concern to Serina.

The last table, however, was much more promising. One of the patrons was a dark-skinned human, perhaps in his early thirties, the other a short, skinny Rodian. Both were dressed in the tight, yet comfortable pants and jackets favored by spacers, not the typical loose-fitting tunics worn by most of the local moisture farmers. They had been sticking out like a sore thumb all evening and had continued to cast appraising glances at her. It was not the kind of interest she had already learned to dissipate in the cantina in Centralia, but a calculating assessment of a shrewder sort. _Smugglers_ , she concluded, _or thugs, sent by a smuggler_ ; which was much more likely according to what Serina could sense through the Force.

When the owner, scheduled to work the early morning shift, arrived to relieve her, Serina went to the back room to get the small satchel from her locker. By the time she returned, the two thugs had left, but she could sense them waiting in the dark just outside of the dim pools of light spread by the few lamps on the cantina's veranda. Quickly she considered her options. It was obvious that they would try to overpower her and bring her to whoever had hired them. Of course, she could prevent that and turn the tables on them, but, why should she? As long as they were not aware of her abilities, she'd have some advantage over them. After all, it was their boss whom she was interested in talking to, not his two thugs.

After informing the owner that she would not continue working for him, she left the cantina in the direction of her temporary quarters. As she approached the entrance of the boarding house, the dark-skinned fellow suddenly blocked her path.

"Hi there, going anywhere?" he inquired with a sly expression on his face. Before she could even answer, a hard metal object was poked into her back and the reedy voice of the Rodian piped up behind her, "Ama ruray ima asnu." Though she did not speak much Rodese, the meaning was quite plain: _don't be stupid_ , which was certainly not what she intended on being, so she raised her hands where they could see them.

With a voice that she hoped would display just the right amount of intimidation befitting her situation, she replied, "What do you want? I don't have anything. I'm just a waitress. Please, don't hurt me." At the same time, she used the Force to convince the two thugs of her helplessness, her weakness and to dispel any ideas of searching her satchel or herself for any concealed weapons.

"Apparently, our boss sees that differently. He wants to have a nice long talk with you about what we found in your room last night. So, spare yourself some pain and just come along peacefully," the man in front of her did not bother to beat around the bush. Then he stepped away from the door of the boarding house and turned toward a midsized landspeeder parked a few meters away. A painful poke from behind prompted Serina to quickly fall into line behind him.

During the hour, it took them to cover the distance to Mos Eisley, Serina was careful to not let her amusement about the situation show. As the dark-skinned fellow maneuvered the vessel carefully along the uneven terrain following the trail the Jawa Sandcrawlers used, the Rodian was sitting in the backseat beside her, trying to keep his weapon trained on her the whole time. Every now and then, the driver would cast a quick glance back at them, but most of the time he had to concentrate his full attention on keeping the landspeeder moving along the often narrow, winding path.

The long wait at the cantina and the drinks consumed during that time were visibly taking their toll on the green skinned alien. The young woman could have easily wrested the weapon from his hands and gotten full control of the situation, but instead she used the time to reflect on her exchange with Obi-Wan and the rudimentary plan she had presented to him. There was still quite a bit of refining to be done and she doubted that the Jedi Master would refrain himself from trying to persuade her to a different path, away from serving the Sith Lord his former padawan and friend had become. But she would have to disappoint him. Nothing in the whole galaxy short of her own death would cause her to deviate from the path she considered her destiny since meeting her master on _Circarpous IV_.

* * *

The building they finally stopped at was an old warehouse of sorts. The oblong pourstone structure sported only one central entrance and no windows at all. Across from it, the backside of another, similar building formed an impenetrable wall. The street between the two structures was deserted though some traffic could be seen on the crossing road at the far end toward downtown. Darkness engulfed whatever buildings lay in the opposite direction.

An unmistakable motion of the Rodian's blaster prompted Serina to follow the other thug out of the speeder. With the young woman wedged in between them, they trudged up the steps to the large durasteel doors. A black sensor orb jabbed out from an iris to their left as soon as they stopped in front of them. "Identification and purpose of visit!" a mechanical voice requested.

"Pelt and Haadik. We bring the girl as ordered," the dark-skinned human informed the door control mechanism. Another moment of scrutinizing the visitors, then the eye withdrew and the heavy doors swung open. As they entered, the same mechanical voice informed them, "Take the girl to the holding cell. Then pick up your credits and leave."

When they had stepped past the metal doors, a large semicircular chamber opened up in front of them with a wide hallway directly opposite of the entrance leading further into the facility. Along the arching walls to both sides, openings into small storage rooms were visible, but darkness hid anything deposited there. Quickly the two thugs hurried Serina across the dimly lit chamber into the hallway and toward a light-flooded room at the far end.

 _Doesn't that look familiar?_ Serina thought wryly as they entered the small cell but was careful to keep a timid and unsecure expression on her face. Pelt pushed her into the chair in the middle of the room and closed the arm and foot restraints, while Haadik continued to train his blaster at the young woman. Then they left, pulling the cell door shut behind them. With a distinct clink, the electronic locking mechanism engaged.

The rest of the night and the following morning dragged on. For a long time, Serina just sat quietly in the chair, intently listening for any noise from beyond the solid walls and the heavy cell door. But except for some distant creaks from the ventilation system, no outside sounds could be heard. And yet, there was most certainly a presence close-by, perceivable only through the Force, unlike any the young woman had encountered before. If it was the Gotal she had set out to find, she would be well advised to keep her emotions in close check. Anything perceived as a hint at deception would screw her plans quicker than her master punished incompetence.

Enshrouding her presence in a cloak of anxiety, forcing her thoughts to run in desperate circles around her hopeless situation, she started to fidget and squirm around in the chair. "Hello? Is there somebody out there? What do you want from me?" But there was no response from outside her cell, no hint that anybody was paying any attention to her pleading. And yet, even without reaching through the Force for the presence she had sensed earlier, she was certain that the Gotal had turned his empathic awareness toward her.

A few hours later - after phases of crying, mumbling her resentments, ranting out loud and finally again pleading desperately - Serina was hanging limply in the chair, apparently having given up all hope of ever escaping her captors. She had been very careful to keep her impressions in the Force in accord with whatever expression she had been displaying at that time.

Suddenly, with a piercing creak, a small panel slid aside and another sensor orb jabbed toward her face from the wall in front of her.

"Who are you?" Although it was the same mechanical voice as at the entrance, it was quite obviously a different inquirer.

With a weary expression, she gazed up at the orb, allowing a slight glimmer of hope to surface. "My name is Serina Wanders. May I ..."

She did not get a chance to finish her question.

"Where did you find the gem, we found in your room?"

 _No beating around the bush with this fellow_ , Serina thought wryly. With a surprised expression, she replied, "What do you know about my gem?"

"Just answer my question!" There was an angry undertone in the demand, causing the young girl to flinch back in dismay.

"Ok, ok, I'll tell you all about it. I ... I found it. You see, I ... I was working on this freighter. And we had this passenger, a real fat guy. And pretty old, too. Well, I think we got into some kind of ion storm and got off course somewhere out on the Rim." As her narration picked up some speed, she allowed more confidence to creep into her voice and appearance. "And then we tried to land on some planet, but something caught on fire. They all burned to death. Just I and another guy survived. I guess, I was just lucky, was in the most unlikely place." An expression of embarrassment mingled with a sheepish smile at the memory. "I was in the refresher of all places. But it saved my life. The other guy was in some crawlway, close to the hanger, so he survived, too, but he got hurt in the crash. He died in my arms a couple of hours later."

For a moment, she hesitated, but she did not want to test the Gotal's patience. "When I looked through the wreck after the flames died out, I found two crates in the quarters of the fat guy. They were cracked open and in one of them I found some nice gems, in the other a whole bunch of antique weapons." She gave the orb a shrewd glance, portraying much more self-confidence than at the start. "By the time the rescue ship arrived, I had already hidden the crates a good way from the crash site. And nobody else knows where they are. But if I can find somebody to fly me there and help me retrieve them, it would certainly be worth his time."

Now she was looking straight at the mechanical eye, conviction, that no smuggler in his right mind would dismiss the job she had just offered, displayed on her face as well as in her presence in the Force. Would he take the bait?

With another piercing creak, the orb withdrew back into the wall and the panel slid shut in front of it. For long minutes, nothing happened. Finally, her ears picked up footfalls outside the cell. A clicking signaled the release of the electronic locking mechanism. The two tired faces, scowling at her once the door had opened, were only too familiar: Pelt and Haadik. After they had removed the restraints, the dark-skinned human dragged her to her feet and shoved her out into the hallway.

When they reached the large semicircular chamber, he directed her into one of the small storage alcoves to their right. One side of the small room was lined with shelfs, cluttered with boxes of various sizes. Set against the other wall was a small desk with a built-in computer terminal. Haadik thrust her toward the chair in front of it. "Sit down and read the contract," he ordered her. "When you've signed it, I'll take you back to Anchorhead." His tone was proof that his newest assignment registered pretty low on his list of desirable activities for this time of the day.

As Serina settled into the chair and cast a curious glance at the information displayed on the screen in front of her, she had to fight hard to keep a content smirk from her face. Brok had swallowed the bait hook, line and sinker. If he proved true to his previous habits, the next objective of her mission had just moved within her grasp.

* * *

The first of _Tatooine's_ suns had just disappeared behind the jagged cliffs to the west when Serina directed her landspeeder up the steep slope of the bluff toward Obi-Wan's hut. She turned off the engine and jumped out. As she grabbed some of the bags with the supplies she had purchased at Anchorhead, the bearded Jedi Master greeted her from the front door of the squarish building.

"I figured you might appreciate a little bit of variation in your diet," she cast him a lopsided grin. "I hope you like what I bought." Then she shoved the first of the bags into his hands and returned to the speeder to get the rest.

An hour later, they had stowed away the supplies, Serina had prepared a - for Ben's standards - unusually lavish dinner and they were just finishing off with an extra glass of clear, fresh water - much better than anything the old vaporator outside could produce -, when the young woman broke the easy silence that had ensued between them, "I will be leaving at 1800 the day after tomorrow from docking bay 102 at the Mos Eisley spaceport. Would you mind taking me there? You can keep the landspeeder until I return in seven months." She looked at him expectantly.

"Certainly, I can do that," Obi-Wan confirmed. "But that only leaves us two more days to work out the details of your plan."

"It will be sufficient, you'll see."

Though Serina spoke with utter confidence, the older man still had his doubts. Using Force persuasion constituted a serious moral issue for the Jedi. And, what Serina had asked him to do, went far beyond convincing an Utai to assist with a dragonmount or to get a Weequay to open some cell bars. But in order to protect Anakin's son from the Empire, he would be willing to give it a try. With a wry smile, he corrected himself: he would do it, since - as Yoda would be quick to correct - for a Jedi there was only "do" or "do not", there was no "try".

"We will see. But there is one aspect you might have overlooked." Obi-Wan was reluctant to broach this subject but it was better to address it now than to risk the whole plan blowing up in their faces at the worst time possible. "You are treading a dangerous path, always just a step away from the darkness. What if you succumb to it, what if the lure of the dark side gets the better of you? No matter which trigger I use, there is still the chance that it will get set off at the wrong time. And if you have lost the control over yourself, there is no telling what you will do once you remember! There is only one way to avoid that from happening: leave Vader, leave the Emperor, leave it all behind. Only then will your child truly be safe!"

Although Serina had expected this word of advice from the Jedi Master, she could not help a surge of anger flaring up within her. "I told you before: that is not an option. My master would not rest until he found me, no matter where I would try to hide. You should know him well enough to realize that!"

Obi-Wan favored her with a quizzical expression, "Should I?"

An angry retort sprang to Serina's mind, but she reigned herself in. Perhaps, he truly didn't know what had become of his former padawan, but, after witnessing his reaction to her master's name during their conversation two nights earlier, she considered that quite unlikely. Or he just couldn't believe that any trait, he had once been familiar with, had survived in the evil Sith Lord. So, she would indulge him, would reveal to him the vision most precious to her.

"Like I told you, as far as I can remember back, I had visions. By the time, I was six I knew the difference between a normal dream and the future seen in advance. It was the day that we now celebrate as Empire Day. I had just turned nine and was sitting in class." Her face took on a dreamy expression as her mind replayed what she had seen so many years prior. "The vision took me to a planet in flames. I saw two fighters there, one younger and one older, blue lightsabers flashing in the midst of a lava stream. The fight ended on the embankment with the younger man leaping to his doom. As his mutilated body went up in flames, the older man left."

Serina had to blink back tears as she continued, "Then I saw a cloaked figure approach with some stormtroopers and he had them pick up the charred remains. I couldn't imagine how the young man could have survived, but somehow I didn't want to believe that he was dead, either." For a moment, she hesitated. "Some days later, I discovered the names of the fighters," she cast the bearded man across from her a meaningful glance, "but it took me nearly half a year to figure out what had become of the younger one of them. I finally did, when I saw a report about what happened on _Kashyyyk_ , saw the black garbed figure in what was obviously armor and life support system all in one, introduced as the Emperor's "new right-hand man" and described as wielding a crimson red lightsaber."

Her voice roughened noticeably, her expression hardened as she continued, "Then I put two and two together. The young man, once poster-boy of the Clone Wars, had turned into a Sith Lord, forever imprisoned in an armored shell. But you knew all that, didn't you?" Her eyes bore into those of the Jedi Master, full of accusation and reprobation. "You condemned him to this life. You left him there to die. But the dark side was too strong in him. So, he survived."

For long moments, the emotions connected with what he had gone through on _Mustafar_ and later-on, when the droids had operated on him and placed him in that life preserving prison, threatened to overwhelm her, her voice failing her as a lump formed in her throat. When Obi-Wan wanted to object, Serina held up her hand silencing any rebuttal from his side. Then she heaved a deep sigh and forced the emotions from her mind. With a dull voice she continued, "Of course, I didn't know then what I know now: how Palpatine had manipulated him, how he had made him believe that only the dark side could save the woman he loved and their unborn child from the visions he had seen - though I doubt that the Emperor ever planned on allowing her to survive - or what he had ordered him to do to achieve the full powers of the dark side, to kill all the Jedi starting with the younglings at the Temple and afterwards to kill the Separatists on _Mustafar_. But Force visions have a habit of coming true, no matter what you do to prevent them. So Padmé died anyways and he failed in his fight against you. And yet, I don't believe my fascination with him would have been any less had I known those facts already back then. He still would have become my destiny."

With a renewed harshness in her voice, she hurled another accusation at the Jedi Master who continued to listen intently to her deliberations, "Do you even know why he hates you so much? Because you and the whole Jedi Order forced him to live a lie for so many years. A Jedi Order, that had long before that time lost its true purpose and was desperately trying to preserve a political system that no longer deserved protection instead of just serving the Force and the needs of those living within that system. So yes, you freed him from slavery, but you left his mother behind. You told him to let go of attachments, but he loved his mother. How could you expect him to let go of that love? When she was killed, it tore his heart out. And still today, you probably don't even know what he did to those Tuskens, do you? He had to hide that memory in his heart, always aware that it was not the Jedi way, that he would not be forgiven if anybody ever found out what he had done. Ever since that day, he lived with a fear of failure, just as he had failed to save his mother.

Then he tried to fill the hole in his heart with his love for Padmé. And again, he was not allowed to tell anybody. Even you didn't realize what went on between them. And you were his closest friend, his brother. And then those visions started. He tried to get help without revealing the truth about a relationship that was not supposed to exist. And again, he was told to let go of attachments. But he couldn't. Padmé was his life. He would have done anything to save her, even protect the one man, who knew the truth and who had promised to help him, the Sith Lord you all had been searching for, against the Jedi Masters sent to arrest him or kill him if necessary. But the Jedi had failed him, you had failed him, even the Force had failed him. And there was only one path that he perceived as providing a solution: to pledge himself to the man who had been a fatherly friend for so many years and to the Sith Order he represented. So, he finally overcame that fear of failure, was so sure he could save his wife.

And then Padmé refused to accept what he had become. And you showed up alongside her to stop him. Of course, he felt betrayed by his wife; and by you. The Emperor later told him that he had killed Padmé, but somehow, I just can't believe that to be true. And then he lost his fight with you, lost his limbs, nearly died there in the flames. And now, all he has left is his pain, his hate and his rage; and the dark side. That's why he hates you so much. But there is one person he hates even more."

She paused for a short moment before she added, "Himself." Again, she hesitated. There was no way that Obi-Wan would believe what she was aching to tell him. But after all that she had revealed so far, she just could not hold it back. "And, you know, despite all that hate and rage and pain, there is still deep down inside of him a rest of the man he once used to be; a rest of that poster-boy of the Clone Wars, of that loving son and caring husband, a rest of the idealistic youth who wanted to save the whole galaxy. There is still some good in him. Buried deep, but it is there. I know it is. And one day, it will come back, one day, he will be free again."

She had spoken the last words with fierceness, with longing and with conviction born of unconditional devotion. They reminded Obi-Wan of what Padmé had whispered with her dying breath. She had also believed in that last bit of good in the father of her children. But how could this young girl have gotten so close to the Sith Lord, Anakin had become, to know of these things? What was he to her to engender such devotion - or was it already love? - in the young woman despite all the evil he had done since betraying the Jedi and apparently even before that, if what she had hinted at was true?

"How do you know all these things? I'm sure he didn't just tell you. And is he even aware that you know them?" he couldn't refrain himself from asking.

A sheepish smile flitted across Serina's face. "Of course, he didn't tell me. Some of those memories he avoids like a plague, others he dwells on to fuel his rage. But your mind can play mean tricks on you, can betray you when you least expect it. And his is no different."

"So, you read this in his mind?" Obi-Wan needed to confirm what the young woman was hinting at.

"At times," she finally admitted, "and it works both ways. That's why I need to lock those memories away. Now, if it was only my master, I would not need you. I have buried other memories before and he still hasn't found them. But he is by far not as capable as the Emperor. Him I fear. He would find any memory as long as it is not protected in a special way."

"How can you be so sure?" That the Emperor was a powerful Sith Lord was certain. After all, for many years he had duped the whole Jedi Order. Nobody would have guessed the well-mannered man from _Naboo_ to be the incarnation of evil that he proved to be at the very end of the Clone Wars. But was he truly as capable as Serina insinuated?

"Trust me, he is that powerful. I had been Vader's apprentice for about a year, when somebody tried to discredit him by disclosing my existence to the Emperor. So, Vader had to present me to him and the Emperor scrutinized me, not just with his eyes either. He discovered all those memories I had managed to hide so well from my master. It was quite painful, even so I didn't fight it, but is was also quite enlightening. I swore to myself after that experience, that I would learn how to do exactly the same and that I would find a way to protect myself against it." For a long moment, silence descended between them, both engrossed in thoughts of their own.

Finally, the young woman let out a deep sigh. "It is already quite late. Would you agree that we have some rest before I show you how to accomplish what I asked you to do?"

"Certainly," Obi-Wan consented. He would require some time alone to consider what she had revealed to him. Since Serina had insisted on sleeping on some blankets on the floor by the side door, Obi-Wan settled down on his own bed. Soon, the silence of the small hut was only disturbed by the even breathing of its occupants and the low hum of the ventilation unit.


	6. Rebel Acquaintances

**Old Acquaintances**

(7 BBY)

The cabin right next to the storage space of the vessel with the dilapidated look and the remarkably well-kept hyperdrive was just as small and bare of decoration as Serina remembered it from more than five years prior. During her first stay, she had shared it with Merik, the young man she had left behind during the Imperial raid on _Circarpous_ _IV_. This time, the second bunk was occupied by Beral Ridan, a Zelosian woman several years her elder. Communications and management of supplies were her main tasks onboard the _Ayers' Nest_ , a fact that Serina would know to use should the need arise.

It was the morning after their departure and still the first day into their journey toward a small unnamed planet just a few parsecs away from _Teth_ , located in the _Wild Space_ beyond the _Baxel_ sector. She had picked the uncharted world as stage for her little ploy after a thorough search of the databanks of several freighter companies. About three years ago, a small cargo transport had suffered damage due to an ion storm on its trip from _Formos_ to _New Ator_ along the _Triellus Trade Route_. It had gotten severely off course and finally crashed on the planet they were currently heading toward. When a rescue ship had arrived a few days later, the last of the crewmen had just succumbed to the injuries sustained in the crash a few hours prior. Inserting her own name into the data-files listing the ship's crew had not been difficult at all. Changing the records of the rescue effort had been somewhat more challenging, but as long as nobody questioned any of the crew involved in person, her claim of having been the sole survivor would stand undisputed.

So far, everything was proceeding according to plan. On the morning of her departure, she had supplied the Jedi master with a good portion of the credits she had brought along for her mission. It was more than sufficient for him to buy a round-trip ticket to _Taanab_ , rent a landspeeder there to take her daughter to her aunt's farm, and also for anything he would need to take care of the newborn during the first few days. She had also left him detailed instructions on how to find the farm and what to tell her aunt and uncle.

In addition, she had passed a small, preprogrammed device to him, similar in function to a restraining bolt. She had acquired it in Anchorhead two days prior and had prepared it for the time of her return. Just like the device, the rebels had used onboard the _Exactor_ during their rescue action above _Telos_ , it only required a direct connection to a droid's metal skin. Once it attached itself, it would influence the droid's processors in the desired fashion.

Then they had headed out to Mos Eisley where he had dropped her off at Docking Bay 102 at the appointed time. The first of _Tatooine's_ suns had just set when Serina had walked through the open blast doors and, past some deserted offices, down into the docking pit several meters below the street level. She was not certain if Captain Ayers had truly believed the utter surprise she had displayed at the sight that had greeted her, but he had welcomed her warmly and introduced her to his current crew. After she had given him the coordinates for the first leg of their trip, the crew had prepared the ship for lift-off while the young woman had settled into her quarters.

When she revealed _Gamorr_ as the destination of the first leg of their trip to the captain, he had informed her that, despite the engines of the _Ayers' Nest_ being much faster than would be expected of this type of vessel, it would still take them close to two days to get there. He had advised her to catch a good night of sleep and invited her to have breakfast with him the following morning. The trip from Ben's hut to Mos Eisley had been long and dusty and the previous two days of intensive training with the Jedi master had been exhausting as well, not so much in a physical way, but mentally. Therefore, she had gladly followed his advice.

When Serina entered the midsized common room right next to the small galley, the captain was already waiting for her. The table had been set with a sumptuous breakfast: different types of bread, some sort of butter, sweet and hearty spreads, scrambled eggs, hotcakes, strips of bacon, and a large pot of caf.

"Good morning," the captain greeted her with an inviting motion, indicating the chair across from him. "I hope, you slept well?"

"Thank you, I most certainly did," Serina replied as she sat down.

"Go ahead, help yourself. You have to try that Bantha butter. We picked it up in Mos Eisley. It's really creamy. And perhaps some Pally jelly. But I forgot, you stayed on _Tatooine_ for quite a while, so, you probably have had enough for that kind of food." The smile, he favored her with, appeared friendly, but she could perceive the sly intention behind it.

 _Ah_ , Serina thought by herself as she nodded politely, _that's the way the wind blows._ But if he tried to catch her in her words, he would have to do much better than that. "Not so much as a jelly. I actually prefer the Pally as a fruit, so sweet and juicy. But, you know, I didn't have that much money. I could only afford them once in a while." Then she helped herself to a good-sized portion of eggs and some bread.

For long moments, they continued in silence, concentrated on their food, before the captain spoke up again. "I always wondered what happened to you and that young man - what was his name again, Meril ... Meris ..., no, now I remember, Merik, right?" - Serina nodded in confirmation - "there on _Circarpous IV_. It was really a pity that we had to leave so unexpectedly and couldn't take you back on board. But you know, those Imperials, always good for a surprise inspection." He shook his head in mock exasperation. "You know, they did stop us, but with no cargo on board, they had to let us go again. I hope you didn't run into any problems?"

Serina shook her head, as she reached for the pot of caf and filled her cup. "I don't know about Merik. We lost sight of each other during the crack-down, but I managed to get onto a small freighter fairly quickly after the Imperials left." She lifted the cup to her lips. As the smell of the freshly brewed caf ascended up her nose, her stomach suddenly lurched. Swallowing hard to keep her breakfast down, she slammed the cup back on the table and covered her mouth with her free hand. Again, her stomach heaved. This time she could taste the bile at the back of her throat as she swallowed hard to keep from throwing up. With all color drained from her face, she jerked to her feet. Mumbling an excuse, she rushed from the common room and hurried to the nearest refresher.

When she had not returned several minutes later, the captain sent Beral to check on her. The Zelosian's knock on the refresher's hatch only got a weak moan in response. But she was not about to back off that quickly. "Come on, Serina, open the door! Let me help you."

"Go away, there is nothing you can do." Again, the noise of vomiting and another moan. Finally, the sound of water. Then the door slid aside to reveal a pale-faced, wobbly young girl. Beral wrapped her arm around her and led her to their cabin.

As the Zelosian helped her climb back into her bunk, Serina grabbed her arm and looked up at her with a weak, thankful smile. "Please tell the captain that I'm sorry. I don't know what's wrong with me."

"Don't worry about it," the older woman assured her, "just try to get well again. You can have breakfast with him some other time." Then she dimmed the light and left their cabin.

 _So, that's what it's like to be pregnant_ , Serina thought by herself, _morning sickness!_ She harrumphed in disgust. All her hope of being spared the all too common side effect of human pregnancies had been for naught. She would have to make the best of it. The nausea had come suddenly and taken her by surprise. Perhaps, she could use the Force to acquire some relief and even prevent a recurrence. As she started into a meditative exercise, a new thought struck her mind. If she played her cards just right, she could use this "inexplicable sickness" to gain access to their computer system. It would save her from having to resort to the more drastic measures she had been prepared to employ.

* * *

She spent the rest of that day in bed. Beral brought her some dry crackers and a pot of hot tea. By noon, her stomach had lost most of its squeamishness, but she kept that fact from those checking in on her regularly.

The night, that followed, her nightmares started to acquire a new level of intensity. Ever since John Rogards' death, she had been plagued by vivid dreams. If she awoke from them, she even remembered much of what they had contained. Mostly, her mind just replayed events she had been a part of from her childhood years to the most recent past and tried to establish some correlations between them. But sometimes, those dreams turned into haunting nightmares that all had two things in common: there was always some sort of abyss and something that tried to drag her down into its darkness.

During the past years, she had attributed them to her closeness to Vader, to some of his disturbing memories she became privy to during their physical interaction. And to her own growing involvement with the dark side and the fears that resided at the bottom of her soul as a consequence thereof. And she had done her best to ignore them, to push them to the back of her mind, to not give them even the slightest chance of interfering with her service to her master.

But after _Vjun_ , a new element had been introduced by her mind: a faceless, black-robed shadow stalking her in various dark passages somewhere in _Imperial City_ or in whatever unfathomable place her subconscious conjured up. And now ... now that shadow developed a face, but not just one. The dream started with the lava-scarred face of her master, eyes glinting in the yellow of the dark side. It was soon replaced by a lean face, wearing a black leather band over empty eye sockets. The longest part of the dream, however, a gnarled face she would never forget, a face forever disfigured by the viciousness of its owner, haunted her.

And then, right before she awoke sweat drenched, it turned into yet another familiar face, one, that greeted her whenever she looked in the mirror. And yet, it was the face of a stranger, with hard, cruel lines etched into it, eyes merciless and blazing in yellow brightness. And Obi-Wan's words rang through her mind: _What if you succumb to it, what if the lure of the dark side gets the better of you?_ _If you have lost the control over yourself, there is no telling what you will do_!

His words were still resonating within her when she jerked upright on her bunk. Her gaze fell upon the deserted bed across from her. A quick glance on her chronometer confirmed, what she had already deducted from her roommate's absence: it was already close to noon and they were getting ready to drop back to realspace just outside of _Gamorr_. Soon the captain would expect her to reveal to him the coordinates for their next jump. With her typical vigor, she rose to her feet - just to plonk herself back down on her bed as nausea washed over her.

* * *

"Look, who's finally awake again," the captain commented dryly as Serina entered the bridge. But his slightly ironic tone changed quickly into an expression of concern as he noticed the groggy look on her pale face. "You are still not feeling any better?"

The young woman shook her head weakly. "I don't know what is wrong with me. You wouldn't happen to have a medi-droid on board?"

Captain Ayers shook his head. "Perhaps, we should land on _Gamorr_ ," he considered thoughtfully. But then, he wagged his head with a sour expression. "Nah, bad idea. I don't even know if they have a med-station down there."

"Perhaps, I could check the holonet. I might, at least, find something to help the symptoms," Serina suggested softly, yet with a slightly strange undertone in her voice. If anybody picked up on it, they didn't give any indication thereof.

The captain thought about it for a moment, his already existing willingness to help the young woman amplified through her Force aided persuasion. Then he nodded. "Sure, why not. Just give me the next coordinates and, once we are back in hyperspace, I'll get you set up at the terminal in my quarters."

Serina favored him with a thankful smile, but did not allow any of her concerns to reflect on her face. That had been way too easy. Was he on to her? "I appreciate that. Our next destination is _Teth_ in the _Baxel_ sector. But we don't need to enter the system itself. I heard there is a pretty strong Imperial presence in the area ever since Moff Shild made it the capital of that sector."

Ayers nodded in confirmation. "So I've heard. We've been avoiding the sector lately. Will it be far from there?"

"Only one more jump." Just that moment, another wave of nausea swept over her. With her hand pressed tightly over her mouth, Serina stormed from the bridge.

Half an hour later, the ship had reoriented itself toward the new destination and disappeared into hyperspace. It would take them another full day to reach a point of space well outside of the _Teth_ system. Although Captain Ayers still felt sorry for the condition of his former crewmember, he was more convinced than ever that she was hiding something. Time to get to the bottom of her intentions. The breakfast had been a flop. Perhaps, the information she accessed on his computer would reveal more about her true purposes than she was willing to disclose in person.

* * *

They cornered her in the small cabin, she shared with Beral, about an hour before reversion to realspace. The Zelosian woman had already left for the bridge some minutes earlier and Serina was busy munching on a few dry crackers and some cold tea as she studied the information she had gathered from the captain's terminal on her small datapad. She had sensed their approach, but it wouldn't do to let them find out about her special abilities. Therefore, she didn't even bother to look up when the hatch slid aside. "Did you forget something?" she mumbled around the salty crumbles in her mouth.

"No, we found something." The slightly sarcastic undertone in the captain's voice caused the young woman to look up in surprise. The man, who could have easily been her father, strode into the room and settled down on the other bunk across from her. One of his crewmen, a dark-skinned human in his mid-twenties with a stocky built and a cleanly shaven head, took up position in front of the door.

"What are you talking about?" With an expression of confusion, Serina put her datapad aside and sat up on her bunk, fighting down the sensation of nausea the sudden movement caused.

"Did you truly think I wouldn't find out what kind of information you checked on my terminal?" he inquired with a sharp edge in his voice. "What are you? Some kind of spy? Are you working for the Empire? Or why did you check out our contacts? What were you looking for? Or should I say, whom were you looking for?" Without giving her even a chance to reply, he continued as her expression changed from confusion to embarrassment, "Is any of the story you tried to sell us true? Or do you just make it up as you go along? Are you even sick at all or is that just a show, too?" He was slowly talking himself into a rage. Serina's expression was on the verge of tears when he finally interrupted his string of accusations and gazed at her expectantly. "I'm waiting. Do you have anything to tell me, anything at all?" he demanded.

With her gaze fixed to the dark-grey floor in front of her bunk, she answered him with a quivering voice as the first tears began to roll down her face, "I ... I'm really sorry. It's not what you think." She shook her head fiercely, yet without daring to look back up at him. "I'm no spy. Definitely not! Not after what that guy did to me!" She covered her face with her hands and started to weep bitterly.

"What guy? And what did he do to you?" The captain's voice was still angry, but with a slightly uncertain undertone. And he didn't pressure her into an immediate response, either.

Finally, still heaving from her crying spell, Serina looked back up at him with bleary eyes. At first haltingly, she started into her well-prepared story. "You asked me what happened after _Circarpous IV_. Well, I did get on a freighter quite quickly, just like I told you, and traveled with that company for a while. But then we had that crash, just beyond _Teth_. The rescue team took their time to find us. By then, I was the only one still alive. They took me to _Teth_ to the med-station there. The company refused to pay me for that last trip," her voice took on a bitter tone, "and when I was allowed to leave the med-station, I was stuck there. No credits, no clothes, no nothing. I found a job at one of the bars at the spaceport. Barely made it with what I earned there.

Until this guy showed up." Her expression brightened visibly at the memory. "Nice young man, mid-twenties, Imperial officer, stationed on one of the star destroyers of the sector fleet. He took a liking to me. Much of a liking. Got me out of that bar and found me a nice job at the garrison. Was a good job, supply department, with chances to advance. And he promised to marry me. I saw him whenever they got back from their patrol duty. A year passed, and then another. We had talked about children, but he wanted to wait until after the marriage. And I was so stupid." Her voice faltered for a moment. Then the bitterness returned, stronger than before. "I thought, if I got pregnant, he would marry me. It took a few months, but finally, about five weeks ago, it happened. I found out two weeks later and, when he returned from his patrol duty, I was so excited when I told him."

For a moment, sadness fought with enragement in her expression. "You won't believe what he told me." With a deeper voice she intoned, _"Get rid of it. I got no time for that right now. It wouldn't be good for my career."_ When she continued, grim determination was the only emotion still discernable in her voice. "I refused. The next night, two masked guys broke into my apartment. They overpowered me and knocked me out with some shot. I awoke in the cargo hold of a dingy freighter, a bag with some of my clothes and a few personal belongings beside me and just enough credits in my pocket to survive for a few weeks. The destination was _Tatooine_ and they, more or less, kicked me off-board in Mos Eisley. The only good thing about the whole mess was, that I still had that gem from the time of the crash a few years ago. The rest you already know."

"Hmmm," Ayers had listened to her story intently, "so, you are still pregnant?"

She nodded eagerly in confirmation and added with a sheepish expression, "Morning sickness."

"If you knew that all along, what did you try to find on the computer?" he demanded, now, however, with a tone more curious than angry.

"Do you remember, how Merik and I ended up on _Formos_? We got in the middle of this deal between those rebels and some smugglers, who wanted to buy the _Coresac_. So, I figured, you, being a smuggler as well, might also have some dealings with rebels. And perhaps, I could find out how to contact them."

"Why would you want to contact them?"

With a fierceness in her voice that was totally unlike her usual calm demeanor, Serina gushed out, "I want to pay him back for what he did to me. Even if I have to take down the whole Empire to do it!"

For a long moment, silence descended upon the small cabin. Then Ayers got to his feet with a quick glance on his chronometer. "I'll think about what you just told me. We'll revert back to realspace in about fifteen minutes. Get dressed and meet me on the bridge. We'll need those final coordinates from you. Once we've retrieved those crates, we'll talk about this issue some more."

* * *

They still didn't trust her unreservedly, but she couldn't really blame them for their precautions. Serina was already quite curious, where they would be taking her, while she waited patiently, locked into her cabin as per order of the captain. So far, everything had developed just as she had hoped...

 _From_ Teth _, it had only been a short jump past_ Rinn _and, beyond the border of the_ Baxel _sector, into uncharted space. The planet was the second of three that orbited a small yellow sun and had been just as forsaken as when she had deposited the two crates there a little over two weeks prior. It sported several large continents with numerous mountain ranges, large lakes and, along the shores of the oceans, long white beaches. There were endless grass-covered prairies and sprawling forests, but hardly any larger animals and no sentient lifeforms. Everything had a strange brown-green color to it and was somehow odd and twisted. Every now and then, crumbling ruins, apparently deserted for centuries or even millennia, became visible below them. Whatever had happened on this planet, it had either wiped out the whole population or the survivors had fled the fallout of whatever weapons they had used. The level of radiation was still far above normal, but no longer life threatening._

 _She had given them enough clues - landmarks that she claimed to remember from holo-images her rescuers had taken - to locate the crash site of the hapless freighter fairly quickly. The landing beside the wreck between a lake and the foot of a mountain, the trip with a small hovercart to a cave located several hundred meters away underneath an overhanging rock, and the transport of the two crates back to the ship had taken them barely an hour. Another half an hour later, they had already been heading back toward the_ Baxel _sector._

... Serina looked up from her datapad when the door to her cabin slid open. She hadn't seen the captain in close to four days, ever since the retrieval of the crates. Beral had supplied her with her meals and with enough crackers and tea to keep her revolting stomach at bay in the mornings. As far as she had been able to discern, the ship had made two jumps in that time and had landed on some planet half a day prior. Now, they were on the move again and had just jumped to hyperspace.

The expression on Captain Ayers' face was proof of the same satisfaction she sensed through the Force. Apparently, he had been able to turn the contents of the crates into credits and was pleased with the proceeds collected. Even if he deducted the fee he had agreed upon with Bolu Brok for setting up the contract, the portion that was due to her, and his expenses for the trip, there should remain a reasonable amount to finance his operations for the coming months. He still seemed to harbor some calms about her, but by far not as many as before. Serina was certain that he had used the time since _Teth_ to check into some of the names her story had provided him with. An officer by the name she had given him was stationed in the _Baxel_ sector and the freighter she had mentioned had also undertaken a trip from _Teth_ to _Tatooine_ around the time she had claimed. Therefore, he would not find anything amiss and the crates had served as further proof that her story was true.

Ayers stepped through the entrance and settled down on Beral's bunk. "I've got some good news for you," he addressed her and handed her a standard credit chip. "I managed to sell the contents of your crates. That chip contains your percentage just as agreed upon with Brok. I think you will be quite pleased with the amount, even so," his face took on a slightly derogatory expression, "the previous owner was stupid enough to get ripped off when he acquired some of those gems."

Serina favored him with a quizzical expression. "Ripped off?"

"Yea, some of them were fakes. Pretty good fakes, from what my buyer told me, but imitations none the less. But there were enough genuine ones as well. So, this should make up for some of your hardships during the past months." He smiled at her warmly. "And I have even better news as well."

This time, he had her undivided attention and she didn't have to fake her excitement, either. "Better than a whole chip full of credits?"

He nodded in confirmation, his smile turning into a broad grin. "We'll be meeting with another freighter shortly. They are willing to take you onboard. Somebody was quite interested in your story and wants to meet you in person."

"Really? Who is it? Are they..." she hesitated for effect as if afraid to voice the next word, "...rebels?"

"Just wait and see. We will meet with them in about three hours. Get your things together and be ready by then." He rose to his feet and, after a fatherly slap on her back, strode from her cabin.

* * *

The comm unit beside the hatch came to with a loud crackle, startling the young woman out of her meditation. "We will arrive at our destination shortly. Prepare for deboarding in approximately twenty minutes." With a sigh of relief, she got up from her bunk and cast a glance through the small, round viewport at the far side of her cabin. There was, however, still no indication as to where the small transport had taken her, but it had to be somewhere on the _Outer Rim_ from the few distant stars visible in the blackness of space above the planet they were approaching.

The vessel that had met with the _Ayers' Nest_ could not really be classified as a light freighter, although a whole load of crates and barrels had been transferred from the smuggler's ship into the holds on the lower deck. While the loading was still in progress, they had ushered her through the pressure tunnel, that connected both vessels, into the cargo bay and then through a winding stairwell onto the upper deck. There she had been assigned one of the snug cabins lining both sides of the corridor. There were about ten or twelve, even so some of them probably functioned as crew quarters.

About two hours later, the ships had disconnected and had departed the rendezvous point in the middle of nowhere. At least, she hadn't noticed any close-by stars or planets from the small viewport of the cabin or from the quick passage through the transparent pressure tunnel. Since then, she had been confined to her cabin. One of the crewmembers had brought her a light dinner about three hours into their trip.

From what she had been able to sense through the Force, there were eight sentients besides her on board. From the way, they moved around, and the stray thoughts, she had managed to pick up, four of them were apparently crewmembers. The rest had to be passengers like herself, staying in the cabins next to hers. Without the benefit of a physical connection, the amount of information she could gather from their minds was limited to emotions and, at times, some preeminent thoughts. But most of them had used the long hours of travel to catch up on some sleep. So, she had resigned herself to meditative exercises and to preparing her mind for what needed to be accomplished once she returned to _Tatooine_.

A barely perceptible rumble went through the ship as it settled down on the hangar deck. Moments later, the cabin door slid aside and the same young woman, who had brought her dinner several hours prior, peered inside. "Are you ready? We can leave the ship now."

Serina nodded and grabbed her satchel. When she stepped into the corridor, the other passengers had already gathered and were moving toward the stairwell. Moments later, they emerged from the exit hatch and walked down the boarding ramp onto the floor of a vast hangar.

Busy activity greeted them. Along both sides of the immense cavern, a variety of vessels came into view: small, single person fighters, mainly Z-95 Headhunters and a few lonely Y-Wings; several Nu-class transports; two small freighters, one of them a VCX-100 and the other one a type, Serina didn't recognize at all, but it seemed to be the same kind as the vessel she had arrived in. The unloading of the shipment, Captain Ayers had procured for them, had already started. Mechanics and pilots were milling about, various kinds of droids scurried around, hovercarts and refueling vehicles were moved across the open spaces.

"Welcome to Farside Base," a young man about Serina's own age greeted the new arrivals. "Please follow me." Toward the middle-aged man in the group, he added, "The commander is expecting you in his office." Then he turned around and led them to a troop cart with seats for six passengers. As they were ferried toward the far back of the hangar bay, Serina used the time to get a closer look at the others who had arrived together with her.

The young man next to her couldn't be any older than sixteen or seventeen. Although his presence in the Force reflected the excitement visible on his face, she also sensed a profound sorrow in his soul. For an instant, she wondered if whatever had happened to him had been responsible for his wish to join the rebel movement. Next to him sat a Sullustan female. She was at least a head shorter than the boy, had a light green skin-color, and seemed to have also just reached adulthood. Behind Serina, on the other side of the troop cart, sat another human, several years her elder, but by far not as old as the middle-aged man, who had taken the front seat, next to the operator.

The three young people were looking around with obvious curiosity, taking in every aspect of the bustling hangar bay, a curiosity, the older fellow was lacking all together. Shortly before they reached on of the turbolifts at the left backside of the vast cavern, Serina turned her attention toward the last member of their group. Even so the lack of a physical contact barred her from intruding into his thoughts, his presence in the Force disclosed several things about him: he was certainly somebody used to wielding authority, he was very familiar with this place - either he usually spent his time here or he paid it regular visits -, and he was looking forward to his upcoming meeting with the commander of the base in the typical manner of a businessman meeting one of his major customers. Was he perhaps one of those people, her master was so anxious to finally locate? A leader of this rebel movement? If he wasn't, he was certainly somebody close to the higher echelons of the movement, somebody, who certainly bore watching. She would have to find out who he was and where he was from. That information alone would already make her mission a success. Of course, only if she managed to pass it on to the Sith Lord without having her cover blown before she could return to _Tatooine_.

The rest of the day passed by in a flash. While the older fellow stayed in the turbolift, Serina and the three others were ushered out into a long corridor two levels above the hangar deck. To both sides, offices and storerooms lined the passage with small corridors leading toward the left portion of the level at regular intervals. About halfway down the hallway, their guide stopped and invited them to step into an office to their right. The next hour was spent with the registration process. Then they were assigned quarters, given a short tour of the facility, and taken to the mess hall for a quick lunch. Afterwards, the registration process continued with an evaluation of their abilities. Shortly before dinner, they were taken to the supplies room and equipped with some basic items: comlinks, bed linens, standard clothing, datapads and the likes. After dinner, they retired to their assigned quarters and got settled in for their first night at Farside Base.

Serina had been assigned to share her room with the Sullustan female, who had introduced herself as Siba Buun. Even so they could have made use of the recreational facilities, both young women retired to their quarters early that night. It had been a long, exciting day and the upcoming one promised to continue in the same fashion: after breakfast, the commander would meet with the new arrivals. And then, they would receive a provisory assignment, depending on their evaluation results. Serina was already keen on discovering what kind of work would be considered appropriate for the kind of abilities she had limited herself to reveal to them. And she was dying to find out who the mysterious "commander" might be.

* * *

At point 900, the four newest members of the local rebel group reported to a medium-sized conference room, large enough to house up to thirty people. Most of the seats were already occupied, but several places in the front row had been reserved for them. They quickly walked toward the front and settled down, all four of them now wearing the same semi-military uniform as those around them: brown trousers, dark brown calf length boots, a beige shirt underneath a black combat vest.

They didn't have to wait long. The ongoing hushed conversations stopped abruptly when the door right next to the large holoscreen at the front side of the room slid open. The man, who stepped inside with purposeful strides, was in his late thirties, tall and handsome, with a small mustache and close-cropped hair, that had once been black and had now turned salt-and-pepper. His face reflected the hardships of the past years: deep furrows adorned his brow and the skin around his mouth. But his eyes were a bright green and sparkled with the obvious pleasure he felt at welcoming additional fighters for their cause.

Serina had risen to her feet in accord with the all the others upon his arrival. The commander greeted the four of them personally with a firm handshake, holding on to Serina's hand for just a moment longer than he had done the others'. Then he motioned everyone to sit back down and stepped up to the speaker's desk at the front of the room.

"Welcome to Farside Base," he addressed the new arrivals. "My name is Peet Snoaker and I am the commander here. We are always happy to welcome new members in our ranks. Each addition to our cause brings us one step closer to regaining freedom for this galaxy. I am certain, each one of you has his or her own story that has brought you to this place, that has given you a reason to take up the fight against what this galaxy has turned into ever since Palpatine proclaimed himself Emperor. I look forward to hearing these stories and to get to know you in person. Why don't you introduce yourselves by name and tell us a little bit about yourselves?"

As the young boy started the round of introductions, Serina felt Peet's gaze lingering upon her. Of course, he remembered her from those events close to five years ago. Just as she had recognized him the moment he had stepped into the room. And somehow, she was not truly surprised about it, either. He might have only been the leader of a small rebel team at that time, charged with acquiring the parts the _Coresac_ had been transporting. But the way, the whole action had been planned and pulled through - with diligence and perseverance, with the right mixture of empathy and uncompromisingness needed to get the job done - had already been proof then of his highly-developed leadership qualities. Yes, Peet was certainly somebody who could have brought the rebellion in this region of the galaxy to a point where it was no longer only a minor nuisance, but was starting to be a noticeable thorn in the Empire's flesh that needed to be eradicated.

When it was finally her turn to introduce herself, she gave them her name, her place of birth and a very brief version of the alleged events with the Imperial officer that she had already disclosed to Captain Ayers. After she had finished her story and retaken her seat, Peet thanked the four new arrivals for their openness, welcomed them once more and dismissed the gathering. While some of the attendees left the room to resume their usual business at the base, others stayed behind and started lively conversations with the newcomers.

Serina was just shaking hands with a slender, dark-haired woman in her mid-thirties, when a pat on her shoulder caused her to turn around. Peet had stepped up behind her and was demanding her attention. "Please excuse us for a moment, Melina, I need to have a short word with this young lady."

"Of course, Commander," Melina replied and, after a quick nod in Serina's direction, turned her attention to Siba Buun.

Peet motioned Serina to follow him as he exited the room through the door next to the holoscreen. He led her through the adjoining corridor and into his office at the very end of the hallway. Then he motioned her to take a seat in front of his desk.

"Thus, we meet again," he addressed her with a smile after he had settled down in his chair across from her. "I always wondered what had become of you. Obviously, you escaped before the _Coresac_ blew to pieces. Would you mind enlightening me about how you managed to do so?"

There was something in his presence in the Force that warned her to carefully stick to the truth as far as this issue was concerned. "Well, I guess, I got lucky. I was assigned to secure the smuggler's shuttle together with Hera and Merik. We managed to do so and when Kergan came running from the bridge and told us that everyone else was dead, we got onboard and launched. Moments later, the _Coresac_ blew up. Our shuttle was damaged by the explosion and we barely made it to _Formos_. I always wondered if you managed to escape as well. But, obviously, you did."

Peet nodded. "When the hyperdrive malfunctioned, I first figured that Jared had actually told me the truth, but when the ship's computer started with the alarm, I realized quickly that something was quite fishy. It was my luck that the bridge had two exits. When Kergan charged through one of them and had to retreat a few moments later, I managed to escape through the other one. I wanted to get into his back, but I was too slow. When I finally reached the other entrance again, Jared was dead and so was Mur'oren. Kergan was just starting on a rampage. When they killed the last member of my team still on the bridge, I realized that there was nothing left to do and headed for our shuttle. We made it out of there just in time. The explosion wave still hit us, but didn't cause any serious damage. We managed to rendezvous with our freighter at the appointed location. What happened to you afterward?"

Again, Serina stuck to the truth as close as she dared. Somehow, Peet didn't seem to be too surprised by her story, as if he had heard it before. She told him about being stranded on _Formos,_ about hiring on with Captain Ayers together with Merik, about their desire to find an alternative to flying with the smuggler and about the Imperial crack-down on _Circarpous IV_. When she reached that part of her story, his attention to her words suddenly intensified visibly.

For the barest of moments, she hesitated. What should she tell him? But again, fully aware of the risk it posed, she went with the truth. And it was really her only option. If he knew already what had happened, lying would be her worst course of action. And if he didn't, her honesty should help convince him that the rest of her story was true as well. "We got caught in that crack-down planetside, waiting for Captain Ayers' contact to show up. Suddenly, several ships, including the _Ayers' Nest,_ went for emergency starts at the spaceport. And about an hour later, stormtroopers showed up and herded everybody together to attend a parade along the main street. Somehow, I got separated from Merik and ended up at the forefront of the crowd and - you'll never guess who suddenly stood there in the middle of the street and had me picked up!" She paused for greater effect.

After a moment, she continued, "Lord Vader in person! Can you believe it? I still don't know why he had one of his troopers get me. He rumbled something about "possible talents" and had me taken to his ship. I was scared to death, I tell you. They put me in a cell and about a day later, they brought me to him. He put me through some tests. "Evaluating my Force-potential", that's what he called it. It must have been sort of disappointing. After about a week, he told me that I was of "no value" to him and ordered his adjutant to dispose of me. I guess, Captain Cords - that was the young man's name - had taken a liking to me during that week and, instead of just shooting me - I guess, he interpreted "disposing" quite differently from Vader -, he brought me to one of their supply shuttles and hid me there. A day later, the shuttle was sent on a trip to a nearby planet, _Charros IV_ , to pick up some cargo. I snuck off-board and hid myself until they had taken off again."

Expectantly, Serina gazed at Peet's face. That had been the best she had been able to come up with on the spur of the moment, but would he believe that she had somehow escaped the dreaded Sith Lord?

After a long moment of considering her words, the commander nodded thoughtfully. "I never heard of anybody pulling off that kind of feat before."

Serina protested, "It wasn't my doing. If it hadn't been for Captain Cords' kindness, I would be dead now." Her face took on a dreamy expression. "I guess that is why, about two years ago, I fell in love with another naval officer. He did bear some resemblance to Cords. And, at first, he acted just as nice and courteous."

"Hold on, one thing at a time. What happened after _Charros IV_?"

During the time that followed, Serina laid out the same story to him that she had also used to convince Captain Ayers of her "true intentions". But apparently, this part of her tale was no news to Peet, either. Most likely, Captain Ayers had given them a short recap when he had contacted them.

After a few more inquiries into specific details, the rebel commander was finally satisfied. "Quite a story," he summed it up, "and now you are finally here with us. You could have saved yourself a lot of trouble if you would have joined us on the _Coresac_ ," he added dryly with a smile as he got up out of his chair.

Serina followed suit and smiled ruefully, "That's for sure. But we would often do things differently if we knew the outcome in advance. Who knows, perhaps it's better we don't." Then she grabbed his proffered hand. "Anyhow, I'm glad to be here now."

As she left his office and headed down the corridor toward her room, she wondered if she should have used her abilities to reinforce the validity of her story. But no, it had felt wrong to do so. Trusting her instincts had always been her best choice. They had not disappointed her yet.

* * *

 _It was dark. She could barely see even her own hands. The alley before her seemed endless, the walls of the buildings on both sides appeared to be drawing closer to her with each hurrying step she took. The dim light at the very far end wasn't getting any closer, no matter how fast she hasted toward it. And there was something behind, there in the alley, invisible, menacing, getting closer and closer._

 _She cast a quick glance over her shoulder, but there was only darkness behind her. Orienting herself again toward the distant light, she quickened her steps even more. But her large belly slowed her down. A faint impression flickered through her mind: she did have ways to move even faster, but she just couldn't remember how._

 _Again, she glanced backwards. Two yellow eyes piercing the darkness behind her nearly caused her to stumble. The air around her thickened. Her forward momentum slowed. She felt like wading through deep water. Suddenly, there was hot breath at the nape of her neck. A violent shudder ran down her spine. Strong tentacle-like arms reached for her, slipped around her, caressed her belly. She tried to tear free, tried to fight against the possessive embrace, but her movement was sluggish, as if she had been drugged. She opened her mouth to scream..._

... and jerked awake as somebody gently shook her by the shoulder. "Serina, wake up. We'll be leaving hyperspace shortly." The scream got stuck in her throat as her eyes slowly focused on the face gazing down at her. Belvin, their team leader, scrutinized her with a concerned expression. "Are you all right?"

Serina shook her head to dispel the lingering impression of doom, the nightmare had instilled in her, and favored the slightly older man with a weak smile. "Just a bad dream. I'm fine." Then she moved her seat into an upright position and concentrated on the display in front of her.

After he had woken up the rest of their team, Belvin settled back down in the pilot's seat. When a chime sounded from his board, he pushed the control lever forward and the swirls of hyperspace turned into streaks of light and then the black of realspace. Slightly outside of their direct flight path, a small reddish half-lit sphere hung in space.

"No capital ships, only two vessels in range, both on departing vectors, light traffic within the atmosphere," Serina was able to report after a diligent study of her display.

Belvin nodded. "Let's just hope it stays that way for the next hour. Prepare for the transmission of our ID profile. Let's see if it's as good as they promised us."

Moments later, the expected automatic query from spaceport control caused a signal to lighten up on Serina's display. She had just informed Belvin, when an incoming call required her attention.

"Dragnoor spaceport. State nature of visit, planetside contacts and duration of stay." The voice sounded bored with a hint at some resigned frustration.

"This is _Settler's Luck_. We are here to pick up some droids and parts at Vo Lantes' Droid Lot for the settlers on _Ruusan_. Depending on their availability, we should be departing again within two standard days." This, at least, was their cover story. It should be harmless enough to not attract any undue attention.

It didn't take long for the reply they had hoped for. " _Settler's Luck_ , you are assigned Berth fifty-eight. Follow the landing beacon, transmission starting now. Standard berthing fees apply. You're expected to depart within forty-eight standard hours. Don't forget to pick up your identity bracelets and return them before departure." From the way, he had rattled it off, this was his usual announcement. And it certainly bored him to death. Then he signed off without another word.

"Whoa, friendly fellow," Serina remarked sarcastically, as she transferred the coordinates of the beacon to the navicomp. "Was that just him or are all of them like that?"

"Better that way," Belvin remarked as he oriented their vessel to the new heading. "Too nosey would be more of a problem, don't you think?"

* * *

The streets of _Deysum III's_ capital were busy, fairly unkempt and continuously flooded with Imperial propaganda. Except for a pair of TIEs, that had passed them on a quick flyby shortly before they had landed inside the dome that protected Dragnoor, the Imperials had not taken any notice of them so far. They had been issued their identity bracelets in accord with their fake profiles before being admitted into the city proper. Then they had split up into two teams and had started on different routes through the bustling shopping district toward the used droid lot at the edge of the industrial zone.

As Serina strove to stay close on Belvin's heels through the various crowded bazaars without attracting undue attention from any of the Imperial squads patrolling the streets, she quickly reviewed the three months that had passed since her arrival at Farside Base. The first month and a half had been taken up with intensive training, preparing them for their first mission: blasters, hand-to-hand combat, piloting, navigation, communication, computer programming, and whatever else might come in handy during the kind of action they would soon become a part of. None of it was new to her, but, of course, she had been careful not to prove too proficient at any of them.

Afterwards, she had been assigned to make a few pick-up runs, similar to the one that had brought her to the base, meeting with their suppliers, usually smugglers, out in nowhere or on some sparsely inhabited world. Next had been a few drop-offs at hidden supply depots, all of them tasks without any real danger of getting caught by Imperial patrols. But none of those actions had provided her yet with the information she sought so dearly: the position of the planet that housed Farside Base. The rebels could be accused of a lot of things, but indiscretion regarding the location of their current headquarters was not among them. Coordinates were on a need-to-know basis and the only one to actually "know" was the respective mission leader.

Even so she had managed to hack into the computer system at the base without getting caught, she had come up empty as far as this information was concerned. Locations were only listed by their code names without any coordinates. Apparently, Peet Snoaker was very wary of intruders and kept that specific information secure from hacking attacks on a standalone computer in his personal quarters. Given enough time, she would certainly manage to gain access. But time was not something she had in abundance.

Her reflections were cut short when a commotion at the exit of the bazaar just ahead of them caused their advance to come to a standstill. Two pairs of white clad figures had taken up position at the mouth of the alley that opened up unto the plaza with the bazaar. Everybody entering or leaving had to stop and have his identity bracelets checked. More pairs of troopers had started to advance through the milling crowd, obviously in search of somebody. For an instant, anxiety flooded through her. Had their cover been blown? Had the other team run into trouble? What would become of her mission if that was the case?

A hand grabbed her and pulled her along toward one of the establishments at the edge of the bazaar. She followed Belvin inside and settled down across from him in a small booth at the back of a dimly lit barroom. "Let's play couple in love, ok?" he whispered to her across the narrow table and grabbed her hands. She leaned forward toward him and gazed deeply into his eyes with a broad smile on her face.

And just in time. The front door opened to admit a pair of troopers. They split up and started checking the customers. When one of them approached Serina's and Belvin's table, both of them just held their arms with the bracelets into the trooper's direction without breaking their enamored attention of each other. With a disgusted harrumph, he scanned their profiles with a handheld device and moved away toward the next table.

Several moments later, Belvin let go of her hands with a relieved sigh. "They are gone," he informed Serina. "Let's order something to eat. We better stay here until they are finished with their action. I just wonder, whom they are looking for. Let's hope the others didn't run into any problems."

Serina nodded in agreement. The Imperials might not have been looking for them specifically, but she was getting the uneasy feeling that this would not be the last they had seen of them quite yet.

* * *

Two hours later, all members of Belvin's team arrived at the used droid lot. Vo Lantes was already expecting them. His appearance was just as gaudy as Serina had been told: a voluminous purple robe, donned with a bright orange jacket, both colors repeated in his high round hat. He gave them his usual sales pitch as he led them across the open space lot. After they had reacted in the prearranged manner, he invited them into his office to "close the sale". He continued rumbling on about the benefits of buying droids from his lot, until the door had closed behind them and he had settled into his chair behind a humongous desk. As soon as he had pressed a button located beside a display built into his desk, his demeanor changed drastically. "We can speak openly now," he advised them. "Your shipment is ready to be loaded at noon tomorrow. Ten astromech droids with the required special modifications and fifteen crates with spare parts. The other items ordered are inside the shielded secret compartments of the crates just like last time."

Belvin nodded in approval. "Macrebe managed to acquire everything we need?"

"He did," Vo Lantes confirmed. "However, ..." he hesitated for an instant, "a situation has developed just recently that requires your assistance."

Belvin raised a quizzical eyebrow at him. "What kind of situation?" he inquired.

 _Oh-oh_ , Serina thought by herself, thinking back to the Imperial raid at the bazaar just two hours prior. She had a strong hunch as to what that "situation" was all about.

Vo Lantes rose from his chair and motioned Belvin to follow him into the adjoining room. Serina and the other members of their team stayed behind, casting questioning glances at each other. Ten minutes later, the two men returned. A firm handshake and a few parting words, then the team left the lot and split up again to head back to the spaceport. Any inquiries into the "situation" were quickly cut off. "Not now, we'll talk about it later," was the only answer that was forthcoming.

Shortly before midnight local time, they used their bracelets to gain access into Berth fifty-eight. Soon, everybody was back onboard and settled down in the small common room between the bridge and the cargo hold.

"We'll be getting some additional passengers for the trip back home," Belvin informed them. He gave them a quick recap of what had happened. "A team of four was sent by a rebel group operating out of a nearby sector." - Serina noticed that their leader was careful to not reveal more than necessary. _Need-to-know basis_ , she thought with a surge of anger. It certainly made spying on the rebels a difficult job indeed. - "There seems to be some built-up of Imperial forces there and they were sent to acquire additional information at the Imperial Resources Base located in Klerint. They managed to get into the complex and retrieve the information they sought. But on the way out, they were detected and chased until they reached Dragnoor. Vo Lantes had been named as one of their emergency contacts and he was able to hide them for the time of the crack-down that followed." He cast a meaningful glance at Serina. "At least, we know now whom they were looking for at that bazaar."

The young woman nodded. "But apparently, they never found them."

"Nope, but they will continue to look for them for the next few days. We can't wait that long. Our shipment will arrive tomorrow," he looked down at his chronometer and corrected himself, "make that: today at noon. We should be ready to depart by late afternoon, but could delay at the most until tomorrow morning at 800 when our forty-eight-hour berthing time will run out. Either they manage to get onboard within that timeframe or we will have to leave them behind."

Then he assigned them their tasks. "Serina, once the shipment is on board, arrange approval of departure, but don't give them a fixed time just yet. Reggin, you and Toolan will bring the shipment on board and secure everything. But ahead of that, prepare the shielded storage area for our visitors. Let's just hope they arrive in time. We will post a lookout just outside the spaceport. There is a cantina right across the plaza from the main entrance. That's where we'll meet with them if they show up. And, as long as we have the bracelets, it should not be a problem to get out and back in again. Toolan, you'll take the first four hours, Reggin, you'll relieve him at 400. At 800, Serina will take over until noon. After that, it will be my turn. Try to catch some sleep whenever possible and be always prepared for an emergency lift-off."

Then they were dismissed. As Serina retired to her seat in the cockpit and lowered the backrest into a reclining position, she couldn't shake the uneasy feeling nagging at the back of her mind. So far, everything had gone smoothly. Much too smoothly for her taste. It just didn't feel right. Was the worst yet to come?

* * *

The shipment arrived at the appointed time and so did a squad of stormtroopers. Before they allowed the droids and crates to be loaded into the mid-sized freighter, every container was opened and checked for anybody hiding inside, even so there might have been room in the containers for an Ewok, but certainly not for a grown human. When they finally departed toward the next berth, Reggin and Toolan got busy moving the shipment inside the prepared cargo hold, while Serina strolled back outside the spaceport at a leisurely pace.

Belvin was still sitting at the same table she had eaten a late breakfast at a few hours prior and was relieved to hear about the uneventful inspection. "So far, so good," he mumbled and let his gaze wander again along the plaza between the bar and the entrance to the spaceport. Then he cast a weary glance at a group of workers from the spaceport who had just entered the cantina. Still no sign of their unscheduled passengers. "Go back to the ship and get a preapproval for our departure. Tell them, that we are still waiting for one of our men and will leave as soon as he returns. When the others are finished with the loading, have them prepare the ship for lift-off." With a quick nod of confirmation, Serina left and returned to their vessel.

An hour later, she was back at the dimly lit dive. They didn't dare to use their comlinks. The Imperial presence was just too ubiquitous and they didn't want to attract undue notice. Suddenly, a movement out on the plaza caught her attention. She jogged Belvin's elbow. A quick jerk of her head pointed him in the right direction. A troop transport had just stopped right outside of the entrance to the spaceport. White clad figures were spilling out of it. Moments later, they had spread out along the edges of the large plaza.

Belvin raised an eyebrow. "I wonder what that's all about," he mumbled. Then his gaze went skyward as a pair of TIEs took a dive into the main thoroughfare leading from the spaceport to the industrial area at the other side of Dragnoor. "That's not good, not good at all."

Serina could only agree. A strange unrest had taken hold of her. Something was heading their way, something, that spelled more trouble for them than they had bargained for. With Belvin's attention centered on the events in front of the spaceport, she leaned back in her seat and opened herself to the Force. If she could figure out, which direction the "trouble" was taking, she might just be able to help Belvin avoid serious consequences for their group.

First, she reached for the minds of the troopers outside on the plaza. She picked up a few stray thoughts, something about an action that involved blasters and some criminals, but she lacked the time and ability to intrude any deeper into their minds. And she didn't have the impression that they really knew whom they were looking for. She moved on and reached out further into the direction the TIEs had taken, toward the industrial area at the far side of Dragnoor, the part of town, where Vo Lantes' Used Droid Lot was located. She could sense the aggravation of the crowds that milled about in the streets. Apparently, the Imperials had stepped up their regular controls along the shopping district. But nothing hinted at the missing rebels.

Suddenly, her attention was drawn to a commotion much closer to her own location. Determination, fear, pain, hope, despair. And on their heel: military thoughtlessness, blind obedience to orders, determination to fulfill the task given, anger over the elusive target. Somebody was on the run and a squad of stormtroopers was hot on their heels. And they were drawing closer with each passing moment.

Serina jerked upright in her seat, drawing Belvin's attention. "Sorry," she smiled sheepishly, "guess I nodded off for a moment. Any sight of them yet?"

Belvin shook his head. "No change so far. Doesn't look like the troopers will give up anytime soon, either."

Just that moment, the pair of TIEs took another run over the plaza and disappeared down the main street as before.

When the whine had faded in the distance, Serina rose to her feet. "I need to use the fresher," she excused herself and headed toward the back of the cantina. Once she had rounded the bar in the middle of the room, she was out of Belvin's line of sight. She walked past the doors of the restrooms and reached the back exit leading into the alley behind the building. After a quick glance to ensure that nobody was watching her, she slipped outside, careful to keep the door ajar with the help of a mug she had grabbed as she had passed the bar. She was greeted by the clutter typical for this type of establishment: empty crates, stacked high along the walls to both sides of the exit, trash bins and a garbage compactor directly opposite, and all kinds of garbage that had somehow missed its proper place of disposal.

Again, she reached out through the Force for the fugitives. From what she was able to perceive, they had been moving quickly, in and out of buildings lining the back streets, always hoping to lose their pursuers, but never truly able to shake them off. Now they were drawing closer to her position. They would be rounding the far corner into the alley shortly.

Suddenly, shots and the sound of running feet. Then two bedraggled men rounded the far corner, one leaning heavily on the other, and hurried toward her as fast as the wounded man could manage. They were followed by another man and a woman, who jerked to a halt as soon as they reached the cover of the alley. They took up position and started firing in the direction they had just come from.

Serina rushed toward the first pair and helped them get to the back door. Once they had disappeared inside, the man, apparently, the leader of the group, motioned the woman to follow them while he continued firing at their pursuers. When she was inside as well, he sent a last barrage of shots down the other street. Then he turned away from the corner and ran toward Serina. "Third table left of the front door," she informed him as she motioned him to step inside. But she didn't follow him into the cantina just yet. The door slid shut. Again, the small mug did its duty and kept it slightly ajar.

As she waited for the pursuers to show up, she rummaged around in her pockets until she discovered what she had been looking for: the palm-sized datapad they had programmed with the city-map for their trip to Vo Lantes' Used Droid Lot. While she gave the appearance of diligently studying something on the small device, she prepared herself for the task at hand. As she released the mental fetters that usually kept a tight control on that concentration of powerful emotions at the core of her being - collected over the years at Vader's side, honed to provide her quick access to the Force just as her master had taught her -, she allowed them to engulf her.

Heavy footfalls stopped sharply and a white helmet peered carefully around the corner at the end of the building block. When he drew no blasterfire, he motioned the rest of his team to follow him into the alley. Moments later, he stopped in front of the young woman at the back entrance to the dingy cantina. Serina looked up from the pad and favored him with a friendly, somewhat quizzical expression.

"Where did they go?" he demanded to know. "And get out of the way," he commanded her raising his hand to order some of his men to check inside the cantina.

But Serina didn't step aside as ordered. Instead, she raised her own hand and pointed further down the alley. Using the Force to impress the appropriate suggestion upon the trooper's mind, she informed him with a peculiar tone of voice, "The men you are seeking are not in the cantina. There is no need to look inside. They ran into that direction. You will have to hurry to catch them."

His hand froze in midmotion and he hesitated for an instant. Than he repeated dutifully after her, "The men are not in the cantina. We do not need to look inside." Instead of motioning some of his men to check out the dingy dive, his hand moved into the direction Serina had shown him. "They ran that way. Let us hurry to catch them."

Without taking any further notice of the young woman, the whole group broke into a brisk jog down the alley toward the main thoroughfare. Serina let out a sigh of relief. It had worked. How fortunate, that those troopers were well trained to obey orders without thinking too much about them. But it wasn't over yet. Their commanding officer was still approaching with the rest of the squad. She doubted that he would prove as weak-minded as his troopers.

She did not have to wait long. The first group had just reached the far end of the building block, when two more white clad figures rounded the corner. In their wake, a middle-aged man in a regular army uniform approached with quick strides. A sharp command caused the two troopers to stop before they could pass the young woman and rush after the other part of the squad. Their commander stepped around them and planted himself in front of Serina, glaring down at her. "What did you tell them?" he demanded.

"That the men, they were looking for, ran into that direction," Serina informed him with an innocent expression on her face. Again, she pointed toward the far end of the alley.

"I can't believe they didn't check inside," the officer grumbled as his gaze followed her outstretched arm. With a swift motion, Serina used his momentary distraction and grabbed his wrist with her other hand. Surprised by the unexpected touch, the man swiveled back toward her, opening his mouth to voice a sharp objection, but the words never left his lips. Engulfed in her strongest emotions, she used her innate abilities, amplified manifold by the dark side, to invade his mind. There was no need to speak the words aloud. She placed her commands directly into him. _Nobody went into the cantina. The men ran into the direction I showed you. You will take your squad and follow them. Those two TIEs, that will return shortly, are manned by traitors. They will kill your squad if you let them. Your men will take up a position at least two blocks from here and shoot them down when they take their next pass._ Her commands rang through his mind, drowning out all other thoughts. His eyes had locked with hers, mesmerized by the yellow glare blazing at him. As she repeated her instructions a second time, he nodded obediently. "They are traitors. They need to be shot down," he mumbled under his breath, still frozen in place by her overpowering presence. She added a final command: _You will forget this whole conversation. You have never met me._

The exchange had taken no more than a few long seconds. Serina let go of his arm and the fire faded away out of her eyes. A slight shudder ran through the middle-aged man as awareness of his surroundings returned. He straightened up and turned to his two troopers. Without another glance in Serina's direction, he motioned them to fall into step behind him as he followed the part of his squad that had already crossed the thoroughfare and had disappeared into the alley on the other side. Moments later, they were gone.

With an even deeper sigh of relief than before, Serina pushed the backdoor open and stepped inside the dimly lit cantina. She didn't walk over to Belvin's table yet, but used the Force to confirm that the four rebels had joined him there. One of them was severely in pain. All of them were filled with worry about how to get into the spaceport without shooting it out with the stormtroopers guarding it, Belvin included. She wished that she could tell them not to worry, that she was already working on the solution to their problem. But time was too short. Any moment now the TIEs would return for their next flight along the main thoroughfare.

She pulled the backdoor open again and gazed outside. Everything was fairly quiet beside the constant hum of an air conditioner above her and the distant low drone of vehicles on the main street. Then the characteristic whine, she had been waiting for, rose from the direction of the spaceport and, a few heartbeats later, the hexagonal panels became visible for an instant as they passed above the mouth of the alley. Suddenly, heavy blaster fire erupted in the distance. First a shrill, screeching noise, then the sound of a crash, followed immediately by a loud explosion.

For a few seconds, deadly silence descended, then shouted commands resounded from the distant plaza and, moments later, white armored figures rushed past the mouth of the alley, their heavy footfalls reechoing from the walls. Serina pulled her head back inside and reached for her blaster. She aimed a shot at one of the light fixtures in the middle of the room and pulled the trigger. All conversation stopped abruptly, as everybody dove for cover. "Everybody get out of here," she yelled at them at the top of her lungs, "this blaster is set to overload. Move!"

For a few heartbeats, nobody stirred. Then all hell broke loose as everybody made a bolt for the front door. Nobody dared to run in her direction. When most of them had left the dingy cantina, she quickly pulled out the overload dowels in the ammo pack and placed her weapon on top of the bar in the middle of the room. Then she bolted after the last stragglers. Using the Force to push the last two spaceport workers in front of her through the door, she hurled herself outside after them, flipped across their crumbled forms and landed in a crouch behind them.

Before she could rise and dash toward the entrance of the spaceport, the cantina behind her was rocked by a heavy explosion. The windows toward the plaza shattered, pelting her and the two workers on the ground behind her with clouds of glass fragments. She could feel the multiple cuts on her back, as several of the larger shards cut through her jacket and the thin shirt underneath. Ignoring the sharp pain and the sensation of blood tickling down her back, she got to her feet and broke into a brisk jog toward the large, now completely unguarded opening on the other side of the plaza. The large open space was quickly filling with curious onlookers, emerging from the surrounding buildings, and set on questioning those who had escaped the destruction of the bar.

As she drew near, Serina noticed Belvin waiting for her just a few feet inside the entrance. He motioned her to hurry up. "Are you all right?" he inquired as he fell in step beside her as they rushed along toward the berth holding their ship. Already a good distance ahead of them, Serina noticed the other group. They were carrying their wounded comrade and had just started ascending the ramp to the middle level. She nodded. "I will be once you get those glass splinters out of me."

Belvin cast a concerned glance at her back. Several large shards were imbedded into the jacket. Small splotches of red had formed where they cut through the material and into the young woman's skin. "You've got to take off the jacket. How painful is it?"

Serina shook her head vigorously. "It's all right. We don't have time for that." Then she quickened her pace even more.

Shaking his head in exasperation, Belvin followed suit.

* * *

"Get ready for our drop back to realspace," Belvin called to their passengers in the common room behind the bridge. Once they had managed to leave the planet's gravity well and had jumped to lightspeed, they had removed the bolted-down table and chairs and had set up some additional make-shift beds for their guests with blankets and sheets of spongeplast, usually used as protective wrapping in the cargo hold.

Voren, the rebel who had been shot during their escape, was still in a critical condition. They had patched him up as well as their limited medical supplies allowed, but he would only have a true chance of survival if he got to the medical ward at Farside Base soon. And yet, if Serina hadn't used an unobserved moment during the second day of their return trip to apply her innate abilities to stabilize his body, he would already be dead by now. Of course, the others were not aware of that fact and she did her best to keep it that way.

Elara, one of the other rebels they had helped escape, had taken care of Serina's back. About five of the shards had cut through her jacket and into her skin. It had been painful to peel out of her clothes. The sharp glass fragments had torn free and the wounds had started to bleed profoundly. But the damage had been only superficial and the applied bacta patches had stemmed the bleeding quickly. Serina had used the long hours in hyperspace to invoke the Force to speed up the healing process. It didn't matter if anybody wondered about her quick recovery. She doubted seriously that they would draw the correct conclusion.

For a moment, she thought back to their departure from _Deysum III_. It had been much easier than she had expected, than any of them had expected. By the time, they had arrived at the ship, Reggin and Toolan had the engines up and running. Tower control had hailed them angrily at the unauthorized lift-off, but there had been nothing they could have done to hinder them. If the Imperials had been just too baffled by the fact that one of their own squads had brought down the TIE or if their overconfidence in their hold on the system had caused them to become too careless, didn't really matter: the result had been the same. They had already left the atmosphere and had been accelerating toward their jump point, when the first pursuers had showed up. The short fight that had ensued had caused only little damage to their shields and had cut off abruptly when they had entered hyperspace.

If the trip from Farside Base to _Deysum III_ had been uncomfortable - after all, in accord with their cover story, their vessel was only a reconstructed and souped-up Omicron Light Shuttle, usually employed on local trips, that took no longer than a day or, at the most, two, and sported no private cabins for the crew - the trip back had been a torment. The common room had been occupied by their guests, and Serina and the others of Belvin's team had been restricted to their seats on the bridge for most of the time. They had taken turns sleeping on the one remaining cot in the cargo hold. The other one had been moved to the common room and was still occupied by Voren.

With the additional passengers, their food supplies were starting to run low as well. But they had not dared to stop anywhere along the way. There was no chance of modifying their transponder signal and Belvin had been certain, that their ship's ID would most certainly be listed by now on all the wanted lists the Empire was so fond of keeping.

Half an hour later, they passed through the clouds above Farside Base and plunged down into a deep valley between two mountain ridges. They followed its path for a short time, until, after several narrowing turns, the entrance to the hangar bay, protected from detection from above by a rocky overhang, became visible in front of them. Serina had announced their arrival already before entering the atmosphere and had informed them about their wounded passenger.

When the shuttle touched down, a group of medics was awaiting them. They hurried onboard as soon as the exit ramp had lowered. After checking Voren's vital signs, they transferred him to a stretcher and carried him offboard, followed by the rest of his team.

Reggin and Toolan stayed behind to help with the unloading of their shipment, while Serina follow Belvin to the hatch. At the foot of the ramp, Peet had just dismissed the new arrivals and sent them to the medic ward. With a broad smile, he greeted them as they walked up to him. "Glad to have you back. Quite a successful trip, I heard," he commented as he welcomed the team leader with a firm handshake. "I can hardly wait to read your report."

Serina had to smile as Belvin's face fell at the prospect of having to document what had happened at _Deysum III_. Nobody liked the desk work, but none of them were spared it, either. She quickly wiped the grin off her face when Peet turned to her. First, he shook her hand. Then, he put a comradely arm around her shoulder and directed her toward a figure standing a good distance away in the shadow of one of their mid-sized freighters. "I have a surprise waiting for you," he told her. "Somebody is very anxious to meet you."

Serina's interest was piqued, but, at the same time, a strange unease befell her. Somebody wanted to meet her? Did that "somebody" know her? And, if so, where from? Was her cover just about to blow? As they drew closer to the shadow, she managed to reach for the hidden figure through the Force ...

... and nearly broke stride as she encountered a familiar presence she would have never reckoned with: Merik! She allowed Peet to guide her toward the man who emerged from the shadows wearing the standard uniform of the regular personnel at Farside Base, the man, she was instantly certain, would spell trouble for her. _What is he doing at the base? Did he join the rebellion? How long ago? How much of my exchange with Vader did he overhear? Does he realize, that I was never forced into accompanying him? Did Peet tell him my made-up story?_ Anxious thoughts were chasing each other in her mind as she stared at the young man's face, banished from her mind after _Circarpous IV_ , but never forgotten.

With an effort of will, she pulled herself together and conjured an expression of incredulous surprise on her face. "Merik?" she exclaimed cautiously, "Is that really you?" With growing excitement in her voice, she added, "How in the world did you end up here? Whoa, I just can't believe it!"

"I guess, I let you both get caught up on the last few years by yourselves," Peet advised them with a broad smile on his face. "Debriefing will be at 1700. I'll see both of you there." With a final nod in their direction, the base commander turned and headed for the turbolifts at the far end of the hangar.

An awkward silence descended upon them as they scrutinized each other for long moments. Neither of them showed the slightest inclination to exchange a friendly handshake, much less a comradely embrace. Serina became exceedingly aware of the suspicion that had befallen the young man the moment he had laid eyes on her, a sensation he would forever associate with her person even if she managed to somehow alter his memory regarding the events on _Circarpous IV_. When the awkwardness threatened to become unbearable, she finally spoke up, "I don't know about you. But I'm starving. With four additional people onboard, our supplies got pretty scanty toward the end there. Rehydrated soups and vitamin bars might keep you from starving, but a good meal is something different." She allowed herself a cautious smile. "Would you like to accompany me to the mess hall?"

Merik hesitated for an instant, but then he nodded. "Sure, why not. Peet dropped a few hints about what happened to you after we got separated. I'm already curious to hear the rest of the story."

As she fell into step beside him, Serina agreed, "And I can hardly wait to hear how you ended up here at Farside Base. Your story is probably much more intriguing than mine."

* * *

"... the rendezvous point and send the signal, pick-up should take place within four hours." Peet was just finishing the final instructions for the extrication of a pair of their comrades from some Imperial stronghold by the codename of "CX7". The small briefing room next to the commander's quarters was filled to the last seat. Four teams were assembled, each assigned with a different mission and scheduled to leave within the next six standard hours.

Serina listened intently, trying to identify the true target of each mission. But Peet's rule of keeping the actual names of the planets on a strict need-to-know basis had not slacked at all during the past months. Her left hand rested protectively on the large bulge that had formed in the weeks that had passed. As she felt the movement of her unborn child underneath her fingers, she reached with her mind for the budding awareness inside of her. She could feel the attention of her daughter shift toward the familiar mental touch, but was jerked abruptly out of her introspection when the man beside her got to his feet.

Belvin walked to the front of the room and called up several pictures on the main viewscreen. "It will take us about ten standard days to reach our target, CY4. A few years after the declaration of the Empire, there was a strong rebel presence on this planet as well as in some of the neighboring systems. The Empire reacted with a series of brutal assaults and devastated much of the planet in the process. It took the local dissidents several years to regain some strength.

About two years ago, they had just started to rebuild an old base located in a nearby mountain range, when the Empire discovered their presence and attacked again. Besides the mountain base, they also wiped out nearly every member of the local headquarters. The few who escaped laid low for several months and are now in the process of rebuilding. About two weeks ago, they contacted us and requested a shipment of much needed equipment and weapons."

He went on to describe in detail where they would deliver the goods and which difficulties they might encounter in the process. But Serina was no longer listening to his deliberations. A mountain base, a wiped-out headquarters, about two years ago? She knew exactly which planet Belvin was talking about. And she was not about to risk meeting anybody that might have survived the "more subtle" action she had been part of there. She gently caressed her belly. Perhaps, the time had come to remind the commander of her unusual, expanding circumstances.

* * *

The corridor was deserted. The lighting had been dimmed for the night period. Although Serina could sense ongoing activities down in the hangar bay, at the mess hall at the far end of the level below her and at the command center located directly above it, those currently occupying the rooms that lined the hallway ahead of her were fast asleep. Hopefully, it would stay that way for the next few hours. She quickly slipped out of the emergency stairwell and hurried soft-footed down the long hallway. Leaving the quarters reserved for the higher-ranking members of the base and visitors behind her, she stopped at the far end of the corridor and peered around the corner. But the doors leading into the command center were closed and those few she sensed on duty inside were busy with whatever tasks they had been assigned and showed no inclination to leave.

She cast a weary glance at her chronometer. Thirty minutes after midnight. She was perfectly on time. The surveillance cams would still show a deserted corridor for the next three hours. It was the timeframe she had set for herself. She turned around and walked back a few feet until she reached the last door she had passed on her right just moments earlier. The device she pulled from her pocket was barely larger than her hand. She attached it to the activation panel beside the entrance.

A low whirring sound, a few soft clicks, then a barely discernable ping and the door slid open. With a quick motion, she detached the device and slipped it back into her pocket. A last glance down the corridor in both directions, then she stepped inside the deserted, dark room. The entrance reclosed, shutting out the last dim light from beyond the door. Serina pulled a small glowrod from her other pocket and turned it on.

The room was not much different from the quarters she shared with Siba. Perhaps a little bit larger and with more furniture, but kept in the same austere fashion as the rest of the base. There were a few personal touches: an inactive holocube on a shelf above the bed next to some small trinkets, perhaps from his homeplanet, and a painting on the other side of the room depicting a beautiful nighttime landscape with two huge moons casting their light upon a lake surrounded by towering trees at the foot of a mountain range. Across from the entrance, another sliding door led into a small refresher. To its left, fit tightly into the corner, stood a desk with a retractable computer terminal, the target of Serina's late-night visit. Hopefully, it would provide her with the information she sought. She settled down in the chair in front of it and got to work.

She had just managed to get past the first two security levels of the stand-alone system, when the muted sound of footfalls from the hallway interrupted her concentration. For an instant, worry washed over her. Had Peet returned prematurely? She called herself to order. He had just left the previous afternoon and was not expected back until the later part of the week. Otherwise, he would have never bothered to transfer all important functions to his second in command. Besides, one of the other workers in the communications center of the base had told her, that the commander undertook these trips about once every other month. Nobody knew for sure, but everybody assumed that he was meeting with the leaders of other rebel groups. At least, he would always return with a whole bunch of new missions for them, additional funds and, oftentimes, a shipload of much required items.

No, it couldn't be Peet. But who else would be stalking the hallways at this time of the night? Before she could reach out through the Force for the presence outside, the footfalls continued past the door and faded in the direction of the command center. With a quiet sigh of relief, she turned her attention back to the commander's computer terminal.

Two hours later, after she had erased all traces of her manipulations, she unplugged her datapad from the terminal and turned it off again. The time had been too short to find and decrypt all the contacts, local groups, bases and headquarters contained in the system, but the information she had secured would suffice to consider this mission a full success. It would provide her master with enough insight into the rebel organization to define better measures of eradicating them.

Besides, the first action Vader would most certainly undertake would be the attack on Farside Base. The news thereof would spread quickly. Within just a few days, most of the data she had gained would be obsolete, the rebel groups would have deserted their bases and moved on, convinced that their locations and names were no longer a secret to the Empire. Even if they managed to catch only a small percentage of those dissidents, their operations would experience a severe setback, an effect the Sith Lord needed to appease his master's anger over the lack of results during the past months.

For an instant, she felt a pang of conscience. Although she had been careful to not establish too close a relationship with any of those she had been in contact with these past months, these people had befriended her, they had covered her back during their missions, risking their own lives to protect hers, and she had done the same in return. Tender bonds of friendship had formed even so she had not intended them to. To deliver them to the non-existent mercy of her master and his troops, felt at the same time right and altogether wrong, awfully wrong even, and she wished there was another way to accomplish her task. But there wasn't. No matter how much she understood and, at times, even sympathized with their cause - she was probably more aware of the severe injustices that prevailed in the Empire than most of them - it was not _her_ cause, not at this time and certainly not in her current circumstances.

But these were futile thoughts. With an effort of will, she pushed them aside and concentrated on the task at hand. Checking a final time, that nothing in the room betrayed her intrusion, she reached through the Force for the hallway outside. It was just as deserted as she had expected at this time of the night. After a short glance at her chronometer to confirm that her manipulations of the surveillance system were still in effect, she stepped outside of the commander's quarters and hurried toward the emergency stairwell at the end of the corridor.

As she ascended the stairs toward the level with her quarters, her thoughts concentrated on her next steps. Once Peet returned, she would have to convince him that it was time for her to travel to _Tatooine_ for the delivery of her baby. It would take at least two, if not even three weeks to get back there, depending on the transport modalities possible. She did not allow herself to consider the arrangement she had made with Obi-Wan. The less she thought about it the less memories would have to be "forgotten".

As she exited the stairwell and walked toward her room, a sudden feeling of imminent danger overcame her. Something was wrong. Instinctively, her hand reached for her belt ... and froze just inches from the spot where a belt clip usually held her lightsaber. She had left it in her room and the same held true for her blaster. Wearing either would have just raised suspicion had she happened to meet anybody along the way. But, it could not be helped. She would just have to face whoever awaited her in her room without them. With a deep sigh, she braced herself and opened the door to her quarters.

Even before she turned on the light and laid eyes on the man sitting in the chair in the far corner of the room, she knew exactly who was waiting for her: Merik. Waves of distrust and strong feelings of heartfelt betrayal greeted her as the glow panels in the ceiling came on and bathed the room in their soft brightness. The light reflected of the object, Merik was toying with, a metal hilt with various ancient carvings on it. Apparently, he had thoroughly searched her quarters while she had been busy at Peet's computer. He had found her lightsaber. But did he also know, what it was?

"I would be careful with that thing if I were you," she told him with an angry undertone in her voice. "What are you doing in my room? Did you search through my stuff?" She took a step toward him but drew up short when he dropped his hand on the blaster that lay across his legs, her blaster, if she was not mistaken.

"I could ask you the same thing. What were you looking for in Peet's room?"

"What are you talking about?" Even if she had no idea how he had done it, he had obviously watched her. But she was not about to admit to it quite yet. And more important: had he told anybody else about it?

"I've been watching you. I knew all along that there was something fishy about you. I just couldn't prove it. You are really good. You make everybody believe that you are one of us. But you ... are ... not!" He spat out the last words with a ferocity totally unlike his otherwise even-tempered behavior. Obviously, he was absolutely certain that she was some kind of traitor or spy, a conjecture that was quite true indeed. "What is this? It looks pretty old. How did you get it?" He gazed at her expectantly.

At least, he hadn't turned it on yet or he could have answered his own question. Perhaps, she could use that. "Do you remember the old woman on _Taanab_ I told you about? The one that lived up in the mountains?" Merik nodded. "It belonged to her. Before she died, she gave it to me."

"Hmm," she could feel a tiny sensation of uncertainty creep into him. "But what is it? It looks like something I saw as a child in some of the recordings from the Clone Wars. And," he hesitated for a moment and a wave of renewed suspicion washed over him as he drew the connection, "there on _Circarpous IV_ , Vader had something just like it dangling from his belt." So, he did know exactly what it was. To deny it any longer would just get him even more suspicious than he already was.

With the most naïve expression she was capable of, she nodded fervently. "Of course, he has one. He is a Sith, after all. But that one there once belonged to a Jedi. I know," she added with a sheepish smile, "it's illegal to have one. But I just kept it for Tantra's sake. It reminds me of her. I'm so glad I managed to hold on to it through all the things I've been through in the past years. But I wouldn't even know how to use it." If he swallowed that lie, perhaps there was still a solution to this situation that didn't include his untimely demise. "I would really appreciate it if you'd put it down now. I don't want to see you hurt."

With a last thoughtful glance at the ancient device, he placed it on the bed beside him. "Very well, let's talk about the other subject," he centered his attention back on the young woman and leveled the blaster at her. "What were you doing in Peet's room?"

Frantically looking the best way to address this subject, Serina took a tentative step toward him. "This is a long story. Would you mind if I sit down for it?" She gazed at him with innocent expectation.

First, Merik hesitated, but, after a glance at her protruding belly, he finally nodded. "Go ahead, but don't try anything funny."

Serina gingerly took two steps into the room. Suddenly, her foot caught on some invisible obstacle and got her stumbling toward Merik. Taken off guard by her unexpected change of direction, his finger tightened around the trigger of the blaster. At the same instant, his arm holding the weapon was inadvertently pushed upward by an invisible force. The shot, intended for his onetime girlfriend, struck the ceiling, showering both of them with small, sharp-edged chips of duracrete. Part of the energy was deflected toward the spot Serina had occupied only moments earlier.

As she hurled herself at him, Merik tried to get to his feet to meet her charge. He never made it. In a final attempt to defend himself he swung his knee upward, slamming it into her abdomen just below her protruding belly. Pain seared through her as she took an involuntary half-step backwards and wrapped her arms protectively around her midsection. The impact even jarred her unborn child usually well protected from any physical harm. Preconscious anxiety washed over her through the mental link she had established with her daughter. Fear and pain compounded each other, anger arose unchecked within her, mingled with the worries of a mission spinning out of control, of the consequences of a failure to achieve her goals, and the permanent dread that lived in her soul ever since Vader had revealed to her the Emperor's order on _Vjun_.

Merik realized the uselessness of the weapon in his hand at this short range and dropped it beside the chair. With both hands raised toward her shoulders, he tried to push Serina further backwards as he struggled to his feet. Just that moment, she lifted her head again and their eyes locked. As she immersed herself even deeper into the Force, her eyes took on a feral yellow hue. Merik jerked away from her stunned by the change. Her hands shot upward toward his wrists but he instantly tried to twist his arms out of her grasp. For a few seconds, they grappled in silence, then he slumped back into the chair and moved again forward, slipping past her at waist height.

But Serina was not about to allow him to get away. Abandoning all restraints, she whirled around with a burst of speed and reached for him with her mind. Shoving him to the ground and keeping him pinned there through the Force, she stepped toward him and straddled his feebly struggling form, adding her own weight to hold him down. Then she used the Force to bend his arms backwards until she could tightly clutch his wrists.

As she relinquished her mental grip on his body, she turned her concentration inward and used the physical connection to employ her innate abilities. As she crushed the rudimentary shields he tried to protect his mind with, she voiced her first and most burning question out loud, "Who else knows that I was in Peet's room?"

"My roommate," came the defiant reply, but his mind revealed a quite different answer, desperate and self-chiding. _Good_ , she thought by herself, _at least I don't have to take care of anybody else then._ "What did you tell Peet?"

This time Merik stuck to the truth. "That I don't trust you. That something is not the way it seems."

"How did he react?"

Again, an attempt at defiance. "He doesn't trust you either." And again, his own mind betrayed him and told her what he clearly didn't want her to find out. Peet had listened to his suspicions, but had refused to act upon them unless Merik could prove them in one form or another.

"Where is the recording?" Certainly, he had made one. How else would he be able to prove his case to the base commander?

"I've hid it well. You won't find it. And there is a back-up, too." Same defiance, same truth behind it. There was no back-up. And the recording was still in his room. He had been so sure of catching her off-guard and taking her to the brig unchallenged, that he hadn't even considered a contingency plan. That made things a lot easier. All she had to do was to find the recording and destroy it. And to erase the memory of what had transpired during the past hours.

As she prepared herself for the altering of his mind, Merik suddenly addressed her, "You are still with him, aren't you?"

"Whom are you talking about?" she inquired although she had read the answer already in his mind.

"Vader," he spat out the name with utter loathing.

"Of course, who else would have been there to teach me how to use the Force."

"And what did he turn you into? His little puppet that does everything he orders you to? No matter how evil it is? I always thought better of you. How could you get that low?"

For an instant, she hesitated. In just a moment, she would make him forget everything that had happened during the past three to four hours. And she would cause him to fall into a comalike state to ensure that he wouldn't bother her again until she had left Farside Base. It couldn't do any harm to reveal just a tidbit of the truth to him. "It's really not the way you think at all," she finally told him, careful to not slacken her firm grip on his wrists. "He is my master, and I obey his orders. And sometimes, I don't like what I have to do. But I'm not his puppet. My service is out of my own free will. I," and she put a lot of emphasis on this fact, "chose to serve him. I know that it was always my destiny to do so. I might not understand it quite yet, but I know it's the right thing to do at this time."

"And this pregnancy of yours? None of what you told me before about it is true, is it?" he pressed on.

Although Merik couldn't see it, a dreamy smile tugged at her lips as she replied, "Of course not. But you have to admit, it was a good story. Everybody believed it." She paused for an instant and added, more to herself than to her former boyfriend, "I would never get pregnant from somebody like that."

"Then, who is the father?" Merik was not willing to give up quite yet. He would get to the bottom of this story, even if she made him forget all of it afterwards.

"Somebody who is the love of my life. But you wouldn't believe it even if I told you."

With the insight of a spurned lover, he suddenly knew only too well whom she was talking about. With open contempt, he spat out his next words, "How could you? What is there to love about him? All you are carrying is a Sithspawn bastard."

Reminded of the words Revan and Ron had thrown at her at the Jedi refuge hidden in the icy wastes of _Telos_ , her anger flared up brightly. It was time to end this charade. She had a mission to complete and she was not about to give Merik another chance to thwart its success. Immersing herself again in the Force, she used the physical connection and got to work.


	7. To Live or not to Live

**To Live or not to Live**

(6 BBY)

 _Finally_ , Serina thought with relief as Damion, a middle-aged man, whom she recognized immediately from the records she had studied, exited the three-story townhouse and stepped up to his landspeeder. Now that she had sensed his presence in the Force, she would be able to track him easily, even if she allowed him a reasonable head start. Besides, the small homing beacon, she had placed on his vehicle already an hour earlier, would serve as a backup, should the need arise.

For the next two hours, she shadowed the man as he went about his daily business: a quick stop at his office, a short meeting with somebody at a nearby tapcaf, a stop at a local retailer, and, after depositing two medium-sized bags inside his landspeeder, another check-in at his official workplace. After that, he sat long moments in his vehicle, apparently communicating with various people per comlink, before he headed toward the local recreation area in the southern portion of Arkans shortly before lunchtime.

Another half an hour later, Serina was starting to get anxious. Time was of essence. Her window of opportunity was closing fast and she would get only one shot. She would have to make sure her plan worked the first time. There would not be a second try. Seated on a stone bench facing a large artificial lake, she watched the man as his conversation with yet another of his many contacts concluded and he started walking toward one of the many small restaurants lining the lakefront. When Damion had disappeared inside one of the smaller diners serving exotic dishes, she quickly got up and followed suit. Hopefully, he preferred to dine alone, although she would convince him to make an exception to that habit today.

The small restaurant sported a large curved windowfront toward the lake. The right half of the back portion of the facility was occupied by the kitchen. Next to it followed several more table and, at the far-left side, the refreshers. The middle-aged man had settled down as far away from the rest of the customers as possible at the far back of the establishment.

With purposeful strides, Serina walked over to him. He lifted his head from the menu he had been studying and gazed at her disapprovingly with a pinched expression. Without bothering to ask for his permission, she pulled out the chair across from him and sat down.

"What do you want?" he bellowed at her, his anger over the perceived impertinence palpable.

"Just granting you some company. You appear so lonely, sitting all by yourself," she countered pointedly. "But just go ahead, select your lunch. I'm sure, your time is limited. Just act like I'm not here at all, if that's what you prefer." She favored him with an ambiguous smile and added, "I don't want to keep you from getting some," she cast a quick upside-down glance at the menu, "Snoruuk or Corobb Salad."

Inadvertently, his gaze left her face and was drawn to the menu, just the reaction she had intended her comment to achieve. She used the short lack of attention to reach toward him and grab his bare wrist. Before he could so much as protest her action, she used the physical contact to preempt any barriers his mind might have otherwise raised. Long moments passed, as both of them sat frozen in place, only their heavy breathing evidence of the mental attack taking place. Then Serina withdrew her hand and, without another word or glance in his direction, got to her feet and stormed out of the restaurant.

Damion continued to stare into space for several more minutes, before he nodded and addressed the air in front of his table, "Thank you for that information, Meran. I'll be seeing you around." With a patronizing motion of his hand, he dismissed his non-existent counterpart. Then his gaze returned to the menu. Again, he nodded thoughtfully, as he selected the Corobb Salad. It should not take too long to be served. After all, the information, he had just received from his young contact, would be of great interest to the Imperial governor: they would see to it that those weapons never reached _Tatooine_.

* * *

With a satisfied smirk, Serina returned to the _Blue Marine_ , a modified Anxarta-class light freighter. Officially, it transported selected foods for the Marine Foods Corporation, a mid-sized trading company operating along the _Corellian Run_ Trade route. But unofficially, it supplied various groups of dissidents with whatever they could afford. The company was part of the same smuggling network that Captain Ayers worked for as well. And it had been him, who had arranged their services for the last leg of Serina's return trip to _Tatooine_.

 _"It really is a pity, that I can't take you there myself," Captain Ayers had informed her after expressing his delight at having her back on board of the Ayers' Nest. "When Peet told us that you wanted to return to_ Tatooine _for the delivery of your baby, I offered our services immediately. But our current engagement will take us first to the_ Atrivis _sector and we won't be heading back to the_ Arkanis _sector until the middle of Kelona next year." At the distraught expression on Serina's face, he had added quickly, "Don't worry, I have already arranged the perfect means of getting you there within the next few weeks."_

 _Then he had shown her the route she would be taking. It would take a good three weeks, but it would get her there a few days after the_ New Year Feet Week _, in perfect accord with her time table. Her daughter would be born about a month early, but that would be much safer anyways, for all of them._

 _She had made the best of the many stops in between._ Trogan _in the_ Jospro _sector had been the first;_ Ultaar _,_ Balamak _and_ Randon _had followed in quick succession. Each time, they had spent at least half a day planetside, providing her with several opportunities to set up what she required for her ruse to work._

 _On_ Trogan _, during one of her "shopping sprees", she had located one of the access terminals agents of the ISB used to acquire funds and necessary information for their assignments. With her high-level access code, she had downloaded a list of all the Imperial agents currently operating on the planets she would be visiting in the weeks to come. It had also supplied her with whatever information was available regarding known weapons brokers, legal and illegal, on the same planets. She had used the following days to sort through that information._

 _By the time, she had been dropped off at_ Randon _in the_ Mytaranor _sector, where she had been scheduled to be picked up by another smuggler, her plan of action had already taken on a more precisely defined shape. During her two-day stay at the famous business world, she had been able to make the first arrangements for the pick-up of the items required for her scheme._

 _The elderly smuggler, who had met with her at the prearranged location, had been a good friend of Captain Ayers' and had taken a shine to the young woman immediately. Longer jumps to_ Daalang _and from there to_ Aridus _had followed, then a shorter one to_ Bacrana _. There they had stayed several days, obviously waiting for the arrival of their next shipment. Serina had used the time to finalize the pickup of her ordered items at_ Druckenwell _, where she was scheduled to switch ships once more._

 _The fact, that the_ Blue Marine _belonged to an officially registered trading company, had been a surprising development, but it had not interfered with her plan. The crate, she had claimed to contain her personal belongings, had been stored on board of the Anxarta-class freighter without any questions asked._ Christophsis _had only been a short stop without even time for a trip to the nearest town center, but the captain had informed her, that they would be staying two whole days on_ Arkanis _before heading toward_ Tatooine _._

 _The first day there had been spent with locating the Imperial agent she had selected from her files as the most useful candidate, leaving her only with the second day to finalize her preparations. It was of utter importance, that nothing whatsoever pointed to her as having tipped the Imperials off to the supposed weapons shipment on the_ Blue Marine _. The picture and the information, she had implanted into Damion's mind, would hopefully accomplish what she intended. He would not hesitate to inform the governor of the_ Arkanis _sector of this shipment and that was an information the governor, in turn, would not be able to ignore. He would have to send a ship to investigate. And, like any smuggler caught in the act, the captain of the_ Blue Marine _was bound to react exactly according to her planning._

* * *

Darkness had already descended upon the capital of _Arkanis_ , although the bright illumination at the spaceport didn't allow anybody there to truly notice much of a difference to the sunlit daytime. The trip from _Arkanis_ to _Tatooine_ would only be a short hop; the time to leave the planet's gravity well and reach the hyperspace entry point would be nearly as long as the actual time of the jump. After her encounter with Damion, Serina had retired to her cabin and used the rest of the afternoon to catch up on some sleep she had missed the night prior.

When the ship had departed from the spaceport and was heading toward the jump point, she packed her most important belongings into her small satchel and left the cabin. The captain would most likely decline to let her stay on the bridge, but there was a small common room right next to the entrance. He would certainly not oppose her staying there for the final leg of her trip.

One of the two tables in the common room was already occupied when she arrived. The two freight handlers, who had been introduced to her as Sarill and Haviks, had just started on a game of Dejarik and greeted her with a friendly smile, as she passed them and took a seat at the table behind them. She pulled out her datapad and started the process of purging all information she had acquired since _Trogan_. The only data that remained on the device about twice the size of one of her hands, was the heavily encrypted information she had collected regarding the rebel organization on _Ruac_. Even if something happened to her, the pad would eventually find its way into her master's hands. He alone had the decrypting key necessary to retrieve the information. However, her plan certainly didn't foresee her demise. But it was doubtful that the same held true for the crew of the light freighter.

"Prepare for reversion to realspace," a short announcement from the bridge informed them of their imminent arrival in the _Tatoo_ system. Moments later, the sound of the engines changed as the ship left hyperspace and decelerated to sublight travelling speeds. A small holoscreen, set in the bulkhead next to the bridge doors, came to life and depicted the bright ball of the planet they were approaching: _Tatooine_ , armpit of the universe, bathed in the brightness of its binary suns.

A sudden shudder travelled through the _Blue Marine_ , as the captain veered the ship abruptly away from the planet. The reason for the unexpected maneuver became apparent moments later, as the characteristic form of an Imperial Star Destroyer slowly edged into the displayed portion of space. A few more abrupt maneuvers followed, causing the wedge-shaped form to disappear again from the screen. Instead, the shapes of two other freighters and a small pleasure craft wandered into view. _Ah, he's trying to bring those ships between himself and the ImpStar Deuce,_ Serina thought by herself as she watched the shapes grow larger. It wouldn't work, that she was certain.

The bright streaks of laser fire that crossed space in front of the Anxarta-class freighter were a clear demand to stop, but the captain chose to ignore them. Moments later, the comm system came back to life. "For all of you who haven't noticed yet: we are under attack from the _Vicious_ , an Imperial Star Destroyer. They have ordered us to stop and await boarding, but with all our contraband, that would spell certain prison for all of us for a very long time. We are still out of range of their tractor beam, but they are closing in on us quickly."

As short pause followed, then the captain continued, "We will try to reach those freighters ahead of us. Once we are past them we can jump back to lightspeed. They should also prevent the Imperials from using their tractor beam and they might slow down their TIE's as well. They are just launching them and they will attack shortly. Our shields will only hold for a limited amount of time. Anyone not needed on the bridge should head for the escape pods. If we don't make it, use them to get to the planet. The coordinates for the area of Mos Eisley have just been pre-entered into their onboard navicomps."

A direct hit rattled the whole ship, but the shields held. Four H-shaped forms streaked across the display, as they flew a tight loop and headed back toward the ship. "Incoming," a different voice from the bridge warned them, "brace for impact." Again, the ship bucked as the TIEs showered them in a spray of laser fire. Suddenly, one of them exploded in a burst of light. Apparently, the freighter had started to return the fire and had scored its first hit. It might have taught the TIE fighter pilots the unpleasant lesson of never underestimating a cargo vessel, but it also sealed the freighter's fate. Whoever commanded that star destroyer, he would certainly make sure the _Blue Marine_ didn't get a chance to escape.

When the two freight handlers left the common room, Serina slipped her datapad back into her satchel. In its stead, she pulled out three devices, each one small enough to fit in the palm of her hand. The first two, she shoved into the pocket of her jacket. The third one, shaped like a small commlink, she kept in her hand. After casting a quick glance at her chronometer, she pushed a button on the oblong device, grabbed her satchel and hasted out of the room. In passing, she threw the remote down the garbage hatch next to the entrance.

With long strides, she hurried toward the rear end of the vessel. More and more hits caused the ship to buck repeatedly under her feet. With one hand close to the bulkhead to steady herself if the need arose, she was about halfway down the corridor to the escape pods, when, suddenly, another direct hit caused the shields to collapse. For a moment, the inertial compensators failed and the young woman was slammed into the opposite wall of the corridor. She slid down to the floor, but quickly got back to her feet as a low rumble warned her of the impending doom.

Seconds later, a powerful explosion in the storage area directly below her caused the floor to buck beneath her feet. She was catapulted forward toward the escape pods and managed to twist in midair, landing on her side instead of her protruding belly. As she stared back toward the spot where she had stood only moments prior, the ceiling of the corridor tore loose as yet another explosion ripped through the ship. A large sheet of metal swung her way, but she reached out through the Force and stopped it just a few inches from her feet. Uncertain, if it would continue its descend toward her, she held it in place through the Force as she got back to her feet and retreated backwards toward the escape pods. Once she was at a safe distance, she let go of the metal sheet and turned around.

Just as she got ready to turn the corner toward the row of access hatches, another explosion tore through the corridor behind her. It shoved her hard into the wall in front of her. A sharp pain drew her attention toward her belly. With utter surprise, she gazed at the sharp piece of metal sticking out of the wall directly in front of her bulging midsection. The sharp edge facing her was covered in a bright red liquid: her own blood. As sudden anxiety washed over her, she reached with her mind for the presence of the child within her. The relief over sensing the girl's strong heart beat and her undiminished presence in the Force nearly caused her knees to buckle, but she quickly got a hold of herself. The cut was apparently only superficial, but it would add a lot of credence to her story.

Pressing the material of her shirt firmly to the wound, she pushed away from the wall and hurried the last few meters to the nearest escape pod. From the color of the lights above the round airlocks, the first two of the pods had already launched. She quickly pressed the access panel to the third one and pushed herself inside as soon as the hatch slid open. Then she slammed her fist on the eject button and strapped herself into the seat of the ball-shaped vessel.

The hatch slid shut and a low vibration indicated the activation of the pod's machinery. Serina pulled one of the remaining devices from her pocket. It was a small datacard. The code, it contained, would override whatever had been programmed into the small navicomp of the pod. She quickly slipped it into the appropriate slot, then she held on tight to the seat as the pod was propelled away from the doomed ship with a muted explosion.

For a short moment, the _Blue Marine_ became visible in the small viewport next to the hatch. Although it still seemed to be advancing along its previous trajectory, the vessel was no longer moving under its own power. Fires had broken out at various spots along the hull, being fed by the escaping atmosphere. With a rueful smile, she considered that not all of them had been due to the attack of the TIEs. One of them had been her own doing. But it had nearly cost her daughter's life, a possibility she decided to rather not dwell on at that moment. Then the pod was finally far enough away from the rear end of the light freighter and the automatic maneuvering jets rotated it toward the distant bright ball of _Tatooine_.

Just as she lost sight of the _Blue Marine_ , a couple of TIEs approached for another pass at the dying ship. With a bright explosion, one of them ceased to exist. Somebody was still alive behind the controls of the freighter and was not willing to give up the fight quite yet. But the retaliation followed immediately as the remaining starfighter bathed the rear end of the vessel in a series of blasts from its laser canons.

 _Perfect,_ Serina thought by herself, as her pod completed its rotation and its single thruster unit engaged, accelerating it toward the planet below. She waited a few more moments, then she pulled the last device from her pocket and activated it.

Although she could neither see nor hear the reaction to her signal, she could feel it moments later, when the explosion wave particles hit her pod and started it into a drunken tumble toward _Tatooine_. The vessel's navicomp strove to stabilize the movement with the maneuvering jets and nearly achieved the return to a smooth flight. The attempt was foiled for good when, a few seconds later, something brushed against the ball-shaped pod. A loud screech vibrated through the vessel and its sole occupant, then the nearly stabilized tumbling turned into a wild gyration. For long moments, the inertial dampeners failed to fully compensate the effects of the spinning. Serina had to concentrate hard to not throw up due to the wild carousel ride.

Every now and then, one of the thrusters would fire, but it was obvious, that the pod had taken some damage by the near miss. When the dampeners finally managed to normalize the gravitational field inside the pod, Serina turned her attention toward the small control board. She pulled the datacard back out of the slot and started a search for the controls of the emergency signal. It didn't take her long to locate and disable it. She couldn't afford to be tracked by the _Vicious_. It would certainly foil the final stage of her plan if they did attempt to "rescue" her.

* * *

It would be a close call, much closer than her plan had foreseen. She could only hope, that the small repulsorlift drive unit - designed solely for the emergency braking during the final phase of the landing process - hadn't been damaged along with some of the maneuvering jets. It would, at least, allow the pod to slow down enough to not bore itself too deeply into the harsh landscape just south of Bestine.

The central thruster unit had disengaged as soon as the preprogrammed travel speed had been achieved. The pod was still rotating along its trajectorial axis, but when the small, ball-shaped vessel entered the upper layers of _Tatooine's_ atmosphere, the gas friction slowed down the gyration along with part of the forward speed. It also caused the air around the pod to lighten up brightly. Despite its protective heat shielding, the inside of the vessel quickly reached temperatures usually only experienced at noontime in the Western Dune Sea. Apparently, the encounter with the fragment of the _Blue Marine_ had caused more damage than she had assumed. As she wiped away the sweat from her forehead, Serina watched with growing unease as the details of the landscape below became more distinguishable with each passing minute.

At least, she hadn't seen any more fragments of the destroyed light freighter in quite a while. Obviously, her reprogramming of the navicomp right at the launch had prevented her from crashing to the surface in the same area as the rest of the wreckage heading toward _Tatooine_. She could only hope, that the pod would set down not too far from Bestine, where the Jedi Master should be waiting for her. She had sent him a prearranged signal already from _Arkanis_ just as they had agreed several months prior. And with the bright tail of burning air that accompanied its entry into the atmosphere, her pod should be easy to spot. On the other hand, that also might spell trouble if the wrong people took notice of it. Once down on the ground, she would have to get away from the escape pod as quickly as possible. If she was in the condition to do so ...

 _Any moment now!?,_ she thought as she wiped even more sweat from her forehead. _If the repulsorlift doesn't engage soon, ..._ Her train of thought was cut short, when the vessel abruptly decelerated. Some of the g-forces could not be compensated by the initial dampeners and pressed her forcefully forward into her restraints. After what felt like exceedingly long minutes, the pressure lifted and she slumped back into the seat. The drop toward the surface had slowed to a slow gliding. The trajectorial axis of the pod pointed no longer steeply toward the ground, but had leveled out to nearly parallel to the rocky desert below.

As Serina gazed out of the small viewport beside the hatch, she caught sight of a sprawling city just off to her right. Suddenly, the pod dropped away under her, as several of the repulsor coils failed. Swallowing hard at her lurching stomach, she cast a quick glance at the control board. Three blinking red lights indicated the failing components. For an instant, she was pressed back down deeply into her seat, as two of the lights turned back to green and the anti-gravitational field was reestablished.

But only for a second or two. Then the pod dropped the last twenty some meters to the ground, the remainder of the forward motion causing it to scrap across the uneven surface. It lurched off the ground several times, then started into a wild tumble head over heels, before it finally slammed into a rock outcropping. For an instant, it stood up on its central thruster unit with the hatch facing skyward, then, with a screech of tearing metal, it crashed back down to one side. The forceful jolt slammed Serina's head into the sidewall. She cried out as a sharp pain tore through her from head to toe, then merciful darkness engulfed her...

...with a moan, she regained conscience a considerable time later. Her eyes fluttered open and her hands went instinctively to the large bulge on her abdomen. And came away with a warm wetness, that jolted her quite awake. The pod had come to rest on its side and was completely without power. The inside was only dimly illuminated by what little light made it through the layer of dust that had settled onto the viewport by the hatch, now located slightly above her. Smoke had filled the air during her blackout and started the young woman into a coughing fit just moments after awaking. The vessel was still in the process of settling down, accompanied by an array of creaks and groans as the stressed metal cooled off.

She blinked away the tears the smoke had brought to her eyes and looked downward. The cut, received already onboard of the freighter, had reopened and blood was oozing out, staining the front of her shirt. Despair threatened to paralyze her as she reached with her mind for the child within her. It was quickly replaced by relief as she sensed her daughter's strong presence in the Force. She relished the feeling for a long moment. Very soon, she would have to forget ever having felt it, most certainly for a very long time, in the worst case, even for the rest of her life.

After hammering her fist several times against the release button of the restrains, they finally snapped open and she rolled herself out of the seat. Then she pushed herself to her knees and, clutching one hand tightly to her wound, to her feet. It took her several minutes to locate the mechanical release lever for the hatch in the dimness of the pod. She pulled it toward her, but nothing happened. She tried again, but with the same result. Apparently, the hatch had been warped during the tumbling along the surface or the crash into the rock outcropping.

Again, a wave of despair washed over her. She had to get out of the pod before the wrong people found her and before the air inside the vessel became too contaminated to breathe. She allowed the feeling to become all encompassing. Then she reached deeply into the Force and grabbed the resistive hatch with her mind. As she shoved against it, it was wrenched free of its frame and the hinges and flung away from the pod. With a loud bang, it slammed into the rock outcropping several meters away. Squinting against the bright light, that suddenly filled the inside of the vessel, Serina reached for her small satchel and pushed it through the created opening. Then she grabbed the upper ledge of the hatch frame and swung her legs through the egress. As she slipped down the side of the pod to the bright sand dunes below, she caught sight of some distant angular shapes. _Bestine?_ she wondered and hoped at the same time. Had Obi-Wan watched her crash? Was he coming to pick her up as they had agreed upon?

She picked up her satchel and moved to the narrow space between the pod and the rock outcropping. For the moment, it provided some shelter from the burning rays, _Tatooine's_ suns inflicted upon the desert around her. But it wouldn't last long, as noon was approaching quickly. She opened her satchel and pulled out her black, hooded robe. It would also provide some protection, but certainly not against the heat. She wrapped it around her body and pulled out the remaining items: her lightsaber, a bottle of water and two energy bars, her datapad and another one of her small gadgets, a small C1 personal comlink.

She placed the empty satchel on the ground and settled down next to it, placing the other items on top. After a long swig from the bottle, she tore one of the energy bars open and bit off a good-sized chunk. Then she grabbed the comlink and activated it. "Ben," she spoke into it, "can you hear me?" Only white noise answered her. She tried again. "Ben, can you hear me?" Again, only white noise. She took another gulp of water. "Ben, where are you?" Nothing. Where was he? Had he seen her crash? How far was Bestine away? Half an hour with the landspeeder, perhaps a little longer? "Ben, please answer me!"

Pushing aside the worry that tried to overwhelm her, she rose to her feet and walked to where she could get a glimpse at the distant city. Was there a cloud of dust? She reached for the Force to enhance her vision as she squinted into the distance. Yes, there was a small object moving toward her, whirling up a cloud of dust in its wake. Again, she lifted the comlink to her lips. "Ben, can you hear me?" This time, she finally got the response she had been anxious for.

"Yes, Serina, I can hear you. Just hang on, I'm on my way. Should be there in less than half an hour."

With a sigh of relief, she confirmed and slipped the small device back into her pocket. Then she returned to the narrow strip of shadow beside the escape pod. It was time to prepare the last stage of her plan. With a sigh of heartfelt regret, she touched the presence of her unborn child a final time. After showering the child in the fullness of her motherly love, she erected a strong mental barrier between them, ensuring that her daughter would not sense anything that was to follow.

Then she concentrated on all memories that conflicted with the story she had concocted for her master and, even more importantly, the Emperor, should he decide to question her personally. Applying the same method that she had used to manipulate the old man's memory on _Thila_ , she moved them to the portion of her mind that would soon be sealed by Obi-Wan and replaced them with more befitting versions: the cut received onboard the _Blue Marine_ was no longer superficial, but far deeper than in reality; the presence of her child was no longer strong, but slowly fading from her perception; the despair she had felt at times during the landing now engulfed her the whole time, growing worse as the life force of her child faded away. The times she had spent with Obi-Wan had to be replaced with other memories, just as the meeting with Luke, the purchase and placing of the explosive charges on board of the _Blue Marine_ , her search for an Imperial agent and the meeting with Damion, and, finally, her wait for the Jedi Master.

At last, she concentrated on the pain still radiating from the cut in her abdomen and the aches of her body from the crash. As she caused them to blot out all other sensations, allowing herself to drown in a sea of pain, merciful darkness engulfed her once again ...

* * *

When Obi-Wan arrived at the site of the crash, Serina had slumped to the ground between the pod and the rock outcropping. She had wrapped the black robe tightly around her and lay curled up in fetal position, protecting her protruding midsection. When the Jedi master tried to rouse her, she rolled onto her back and the robe slipped from her belly.

The sight of her blood drenched shirt caused him to recoil in shock. The picture of another young woman rose in his mind, just as great with child as the girl in front of him. For her, all help had come too late. Her children had survived, but she hadn't. And yet, it had not been anything physical that had caused her death. She had died more of a broken heart than of anything else. Quickly, he pushed the memory aside. It might have been too late to save Padmé, but he would ensure that this young woman survived. And her child as well.

With relief, he noticed her strong presence in the Force. Although she might have lost quite a bit of blood, the crash had apparently not harmed her seriously. And neither had it done any damage to the unborn, as he was able to confirm quickly. Using the Force to lift her limp body from the ground, he carried her to the landspeeder and placed her gently in the passenger seat. As soon as he let go of her, she curled back up in the chair. He tugged the robe tightly around her and went back to gather her few belongings. Moments later, they were on their way toward Bestine, just as the twin suns reached their zenith.

The medical station, Serina had told him about before she had left for her mission, was small and only staffed by one human doctor, who took care of those customers willing to pay his horrendous fees, and a 2-1B droid for everybody else. When the Jedi master carried the young woman inside, the droid immediately got to work.

After he had scanned the young woman and the unborn child, he informed Obi-Wan of the result. "Mother and child are in acceptable condition. The mother has suffered several blunt traumas, but nothing is broken. The cut on her abdomen requires clasping, but it has not reached the uterus. The child is approximately at the end of the seventh month and already fully developed. An early delivery could be induced, but is not necessitated. How do you wish me to proceed?"

Just the analysis, he had expected, but not what their plan required. "Would you please take another look at that belly wound. It was bleeding quite badly when I picked her up."

"Of course," OneBee confirmed and turned back to the young woman. Obi-Wan used the moment to slap the small device, Serina had prepared for just this occasion, onto the back of the 2-1B unit. For an instant, the droid froze as its diagnostic processor fought against the first stage of the invasive programming. The second stage was set up to engage without further action on Obi-Wan's part three hours later.

With the proper programming in place, the droid turned back to the Jedi master. "The child is in grave danger. I will immediately perform a C-section. Please step outside while I perform the procedure." As Obi-Wan left the room and resigned himself to watch through the observation panel next to the door, the droid got to work.

Ten minutes later, OneBee placed a healthy baby girl, swabbed clean and breathing evenly, into a small transparent container, converted into a makeshift cradle. Another five minutes later, it removed the protective tent from Serina's abdomen and pulled a sheet over her still unconscious form. "You may come back inside," the droid informed the waiting Jedi master as it turned its attention back to the infant.

Serina was breathing evenly, but had not yet regained consciousness. Obi-Wan cast a glance into the makeshift cradle. The baby girl was small, but her skin had already taken on a healthy pink. The droid was just feeding her a clear liquid contained in a small tube with a soft nipple-shaped cap. A few moments later, the tube was empty and the child had slipped into a peaceful sleep. After a quick glance at the chronometer next to the door, Obi-Wan dismissed the droid and took up a position behind the young woman's head. It was time to make good on his promise. Hopefully, everything would work out according to their planning and the instructions of the gate keeper of Serina's holocron.

* * *

When Serina finally regained consciousness several hours later, she opened her eyes to a dimly lit, sterile room. Instinctively, her hands moved to caress her midsection, but froze in midmotion when she realized that the growing bulge, she had gotten so used to in the past weeks, was no longer there. Fear washed over her as she reached with her mind for the presence of her child, but came up just as empty as with her hands.

With a jerk, she tried to sit up. But a sharp pain in her midsection caused her to sink back into the cushioned surface of the operation table. Frantically, she tried to remember the last moments before she had blacked out. She had just managed to slip down from the escape pod. She was certain, her child had still been alive at that time. But then anguish threatened to overwhelm her as she remembered how she had felt the presence of her child slipping away, along with her own consciousness, as merciful darkness had engulfed her.

"Hello," she called out into the dimness, "is anybody there?"

Moments later, the lights were turned up as a typical 2-1B droid entered the room. "How are you feeling?" it asked her as it started a scan of her body.

"I don't care how I'm feeling. I want to know what happened to my baby!" Serina was at the brink of tears. Even so she knew exactly what the droid would tell her shortly, she was not willing to accept it yet.

"I am so very sorry," OneBee started into the explanation with the best bedside manner programmed into it. "I tried everything in my power to save the child, but, when you arrived here, its heart had already stopped beating and it had lost too much blood to survive."

For a moment, Serina just stared into the air, unwilling to allow the truth of what had happened to become real in her mind. Could the droid be lying? Had somebody stolen her child? Who had brought her to the medical station? "How did I get here?" she asked, seeking any hint to strengthen some alternative truth that would allow her child to somehow have survived.

"A moisture farmer saw your vessel touch down in the desert just about an hour south of Bestine. He went to see if anybody had survived the crash and found you. You were unconscious and bleeding heavily from a wound on your abdomen. He brought you here along with a satchel he found next to you."

"Do you know his name?"

"He didn't give me his name and he left again right after he dropped you off." Apparently one of the more selfless individuals that inhabited the harsh deserts of _Tatooine_ , just as she had already assumed.

"Where is my satchel?" Hopefully, the guy had not only been selfless, but also honest. Perhaps, he had not even bothered to check what was inside her bag. The datapad and the comlink could be replaced easily and the information about the rebels was still vivid enough in her mind. But the loss of her lightsaber was not something she would be willing to accept. When the droid handed her the satchel, she was relieved to find that all her belongings were still present, even the half empty water bottle and the second energy bar.

"How long until I can leave?" she inquired as OneBee turned back toward the door.

"It should only take another day for your wounds to heal sufficiently for transport," the 2-1B informed her and stepped outside. _Very well_ , she thought by herself, _another day and I can call the_ StarLady _._ A feeling of unease, of a budding fear washed over her as she thought of what she would be facing upon her return to _Imperial Center_. As much as it hurt to have lost the child - and it would still take some time for the realization of that fact to truly set in -, having to inform her master of this unfortunate turn of events would certainly cause much more pain than she had experienced so far. And yet, there was - somewhere in the far back of her mind - the barely perceptible inception of a totally different feeling. It took her a moment, to realize what it was. Relief. At least, there was no longer any danger of her child being twisted by either of the Sith Lords. A scant consolation in the face of her immense loss. And a thought that would get her into even more trouble if her master ever picked up on it.

* * *

For once, the space in front of Vader's meditation chamber was brightly lit. Although she had not announced her arrival, her master had been awaiting her. Of course, she had not expected anything else. Now she lay prostrate before him, not just down on one knee as usual. She knew, that wouldn't do in this situation. If anything could convince him of the utter dejectedness she felt for losing the child, it would be this position, flat on her belly, arms reaching forward toward him, her face pressed down into the unyielding metal floor.

She didn't bother to conceal her feelings, although she did not grant herself any tears. The loss of the child was still tearing at her soul, but she had done her weeping on the trip back to _Imperial Center_. Tears were a sign of weakness. And she did not want to appear weak, only contrite, pained by the loss, aware of her failure, willing to accept his judgment, prepared to take the brunt of his rage.

"I have failed you, master," she finally spoke up, "I am prepared to accept any punishment you see fit. My life is in your hands."

"As it has been all along," his angry growl washed over her. Then silence engulfed them, only marred by the steady wheezing of Vader's respirator. Although she hadn't told him yet, what constituted her failure, the profound pain emanating from her innermost being, the missing bulge of her belly, and the non-existence of another presence within her, spoke volumes: she had lost the child. "What happened?" he finally demanded.

Without so much as lifting her head, Serina started to report to him the final leg of her return trip as well as she remembered it.

Only once did the Sith Lord interrupt her story, "Did you catch the name of that star destroyer?"

"Yes, master," she quickly expounded, "it was the _Vicious_."

"Admiral Morrins' ship," Vader considered thoughtfully. Then he ordered her to continue.

At last, she arrived at her final days on _Tatooine_. "When I awoke, several hours later, the medical droid informed me that one of the moisture farmers had seen the crash on his way to Bestine and had checked out the situation. He had found me and brought me to the medical facility there. They had done everything in their power to save my life and that of the child. They had been able to stabilize my condition, but the child had apparently received a severe cut and had lost a lot of blood inside of me even before the crash. When they delivered it by C-section shortly after I arrived there, it was already dead. They patched me back up but the droid informed me that it might be impossible for me to get pregnant again. I placed myself in a healing trance for the next two days. Then I had the _StarLady_ come and pick me up."

With her tale ended, Serina prepared herself for whatever action the anger, she could sense boiling in her master's soul, would spawn. And yet, there was also the inkling of another emotion, just marginally perceivable in the darkness that bore down on her. It was the same emotion, she had banned to the farthest depth of her own soul: relief.

With his typical abruptness, Vader turned away from her and activated the viewscreen set in the wall beside his meditation chamber. Gerrin Molsa, one of the aides in the communication center several levels above them, appeared on the screen. "Lord Vader."

"Establish a connection to Admiral Morrins on board of the _Vicious_ , stationed in the _Arkanis_ sector."

"Yes, Lord Vader." The youthful face of Serina's coworker disappeared and was replaced by the standard Imperial calling sign.

As he waited for the connection to be established, Vader considered what to do about his young apprentice. Unlike most others who had failed him in the past, the young woman was wholeheartedly prepared to accept his punishment, a fact, that rendered any of his usual responses to failure utterly pointless. There was nothing to be gained by wreaking his anger on her. He would do far better to reserve it for someone else. Besides, he could not deny the relief he felt at this particular development. The child, had it lived, would have certainly posed a problem, especially, had his plan of withholding it from the Emperor not worked out as intended. But now, he wouldn't have to worry about that and Serina's abilities would also remain at his disposal.

But the loss of the child was certainly an issue, he would have to answer to the Emperor for. And, even so Palpatine would have to admit, that Serina - if her story proved true - had not truly been at fault, he would still expect someone to pay for his plan having gone awry. And Vader had just the perfect person in mind whom he could present as a punished scapegoat to the Emperor.

His deliberations were interrupted when the image of a middle-aged officer appeared on the viewscreen in front of him. The man was tall and lean with short, black hair, starting to gray at the temples. "Lord Vader," he acknowledged his supreme commander, "how may I be of service to you?"

"About a week ago, did you have a minor clash with a freighter in the _Tatoo_ system?"

"Yes, Lord Vader. We had received reliable information that the said freighter was transporting a sizable load of weapons destined for traitorous elements on _Tatooine_. I ordered the ship to stop and prepare for boarding, but they tried to escape. Several other ships in the vicinity obstructed the use of our tractor beam in securing the vessel, so I sent out two flights of TIEs to prevent its escape. Their shields proved quite formidable and they put up a considerable fight, but we were able to strip them of the shields in due time and to disable their engines. It was quite unfortunate, that one of the last shots from our fighters hit the ship right after the shields went down and much too close to their cargo hold. The weapons stored there exploded and tore the freighter apart."

"Were any escape pods launched before the explosion?" Vader inquired.

"Yes, Lord Vader, three of them. But they were not far enough away yet when the ship came apart. They were overtaken by several larger fragments, that got hurled toward _Tatooine,_ and their signals were lost shortly after. The whole wreckage crashed among the cliffs north of the city of Bestine." From the expression on his face, Morrins had no clue as to where this questioning was leading to.

"Did you investigate the crash site?"

"Yes, we did, but we found no survivors."

"Did you locate all the escape pods?"

A slight unease became visible on the admiral's face. Had he overlooked something? "The destruction was quite considerable. It was not possible to confirm that all the debris had crashed at the same place and that all the escape pods were among the wreckage."

"So, one of the pods might have made it to the surface intact and could have escaped your notice."

"I cannot deny that it might be possible, however, it is quite unlikely," Admiral Morrins was quick to add. The unease was spreading. What had he overlooked?

"It is not only possible," Vader's low rumble had attained a sharp edge, heralding the imminent outburst, "but fact. There was one of our agents onboard in urgent need of your assistance. But your incompetence nearly caused her demise." His voice was now filled with seething rage, foreshadowing swift punishment.

"But, Lord Vader, I am sorry. How should I ... have ... kno..." Futilely, the admiral's hands clawed at the invisible grip around his throat. Moments later, Vader released the dead body from his grasp. "Apology accepted, Admiral Morrins," he commented dryly and terminated the transmission.

Then he turned back to the young woman, still lying on the floor in front of his feet. "Join me in my chamber. Let me hear what information you have attained during your mission."

* * *

Marisa cast a questioning look at her husband, "Are we expecting some visitors?" she inquired as she got up and walked toward the front door. Kayv shook his head, "Not that I know of." Then he got up and followed her to greet whoever was just powering down his landspeeder on the landing pad in front of their house.

A quite unexpected sight greeted them as they stepped through the door. A middle-aged man, bearded and wearing a dark brown robe, was just bending down into his landspeeder to retrieve a small bundle from between the seats. Then he straightened up and walked around the vessel toward them, holding whatever was tightly bound up in a light-colored blanket firmly pressed against his chest.

As the wind caught his robe, Marisa noticed an oblong object dangling from the belt that held his tunic in place. For a moment, she had to search her memory as to where she had seen a similar object before. But then she remembered: the gift Tantra had given to Serina right before she had died. There might be some differences in both designs, but she was absolutely certain: the stranger was carrying a lightsaber, the weapon that had been the trademark of the Jedi knights.

Before she could arrive at a final conclusion, the man with the greying hair and beard, still shot through with some streaks of its former auburn color, had reached them and was offering his free hand in greeting. "You must be Kayv and Marisa, if my instructions were correct." He hesitated shortly until both had accepted his proffered hand in turn and Marisa had nodded in confirmation. Then he continued, "I'm Ben. I have come with a message from Serina. But we should continue inside."

It took another moment before Marisa overcame her stun at hearing her niece's name. Then she stepped aside to invite their guest into the house. As he walked past her, a gurgling sound from between the folds of the blanket he was carrying caught her ear. Was there a baby in that bundle? Marisa could barely contain her curiosity as Ben motioned them to take a seat on the couch in the living room.

Then he folded back the blankets and placed a tiny baby with a wisp of blond curly hair into her lap. Dark blue eyes gazed up at her as the infant cooed. For long moments, Marisa was mesmerized by the tiny form she was holding in her arms, then she cast the brown robed man, now seated across from her, a long questioning look.

But for once, Kayv broke the silence ahead of her, "Whose child is this? Serina's? And, where is she? Why did you bring the child to us?" he demanded in a harsh voice, completely out of character for the usually pleasant-natured man. Marisa shifted the baby to free one of her hands and placed it on her husband's arm. "I am sure he was just about to tell us." Then, turning her attention back to Ben, she added, "So, is it true? Is this Serina's baby?"

"Yes, this is Dara, her daughter," he confirmed. "She is only a few days old and arrived a little bit early as well. But she is healthy and appears to have a quite cheerful disposition, from what I could watch these past few days."

"And where is Serina? Why didn't she keep the child? And who is the father?"

Ben perceived the anxiety in Marisa's questions. Since Serina had told him her life story, he was aware of the deep emotional bond that had formed during the years of growing up at her aunt's place after the death of her parents. And Marisa had obviously developed a just as strong, motherly connection to her niece. He would have to be quite careful as to how much he revealed to them. So, he started with the easiest part, "Serina never told me, who fathered the child. But she is in no position to raise her daughter herself. Her usual line of work is just too dangerous and demanding. As a matter of fact, if anybody ever finds out that Dara is her daughter it will endanger both of them. Therefore, she asked me to help her forget that she even has a daughter and to bring the child to you. She told me, that you had always wanted a child and it just never happened. She figured this solution would be the best for all involved."

He waited a moment until his words had had a chance to sink in, then he continued, "She has also given me some advice to pass on to you. First, though you might want to tell Dara, that she is not your physical daughter, you should not reveal to her, who her true mother is. Secondly, should Serina ever visit you, although that is quite unlikely, as long as she doesn't remember that she has a daughter, don't reveal it to her. However, should the Emperor ever cease to exist, then you may reveal the truth to the girl. But as long as that's not the case, I can only beseech you to heed Serina's advice well."

At last, he removed a small, cubical object from one of his belt pockets and handed it to Marisa. "Serina has asked me to pass this on to you as well. It is quite valuable and you should avoid anybody finding out about its existence. It belongs to Dara now."

"What is it?" Marisa required as she turned the object over in her hands. A glow seemed to emanate from it where the overhead lights reflected from its surface. It was covered with intrinsic patterns on all six sides, giving it a quite ancient appearance.

"It's an old Jedi artifact. You know that Serina is strong in the Force. She might have passed that ability on to her daughter. So perhaps one day, when Dara is older, she might be able to discover the usage of this device. Until then, just keep it safe for her sake."

Having completed his task of delivering the child, the holocron and the urgent advice of the child's mother, Ben got up and, with a slight bow toward Marisa and her husband, took his leave of them. "I have other duties to attend to. I wish you and your new daughter all the best. May the Force be with you."


	8. Political Integrity

**Political Integrity**

(6 BBY)

 _Can't they just shut up?_ Serina was slowly getting fed up with the three army officers in the center seats of the _Lambda_ -class shuttle. Shortly after their departure from _Imperial Center_ , the men - all of them in their early thirties - had started swapping stories from their time at the _Raithal_ Academy, trying to outdo each other with their various achievements. Then, they had moved on to their different duty stations, various commanders they had served under, and operations they had been part of.

Some of the names and places Serina recognized easily from reports she had studied in the past in her task as communications aide for her master. Although some of those events had truly been dangerous and demanding, she seriously doubted that either of the three had covered themselves in glory, if they had truly been a part of those actions. Otherwise, their names would have appeared somewhere in the reports. And their boasting increased as the hours dawdled away.

She rolled her eyes at the incredible amount of egomania their comments reflected and cast an exasperated glance at the young man in the seat next to her. Like herself, he was just a civilian contractor, sent to the small Imperial garrison on _Alderaan_ to accomplish a specific job that required a high amount of specialization. He would be installing a new computer system, while she was tasked with training the personnel to work with the new decrypting program it contained.

Out of the corner of her eye, she watched a similar reaction on the faces of the four army non-coms seated toward the back of the vessel. But nobody dared to voice their thoughts. Serina directed her attention back to the datapad in her lap.

Her mission was as vague as the leads were meager. She had only little more than one name: Herman Rilgan. He had been the middle-aged man who had arrived with her at Farside Base. It had taken her quite some time to uncover his identity. Shortly before her final departure from the rebel headquarters, she had discovered the name along with all the other information on Peet's personal computer. After her return to _Imperial Center_ , it had not taken long to locate him in the databanks. Born in Aldera - just as she had already assumed from his accent -, he had studied law at the University of _Alderaan_. Afterward, he had made his career in the governmental services, soon achieving a position of aide to the acting Viceroy.

And there the information ended. Nothing in his records hinted at a connection to rebellious elements, although it was fairly common knowledge that _Alderaan_ had become a haven for many malcontents from other worlds with a stronger enforcement of Imperial law. What had been his business at the rebel headquarters? Serina had never managed to discover what kind of relationship he had had with the base commander. And now it was too late to question him directly...

The attack had been well planned: nothing had been left to chance. Or so they had thought.

While various parts of the Imperial fleet had been sent to the other targets Serina's information had singled out as most effective, her master had reserved the actions against Farside Base for the _Devastator_ and its small fleet of star destroyers. Vader had ordered her to develop an appropriate strategy for the attack and he himself had led it with his young apprentice in tow. Not only did she know the layout of the base, the emplacements of the weapons and the escape vectors the rebels would be trying to use, but she would also be needed to identify anybody important among the captives or the dead.

The plan itself had been fairly simple: using the diversion a frontal attack would create, she would take her master and a commando of the 501st into the base through one of the two emergency exits the base sported. They were set into the sides of the two mountain ridges that flanked the base. And they were well protected and hidden in a fashion, that only those, who knew of their existence and had the proper access codes, would be able to open the entrances and disable the many safety features they were armed with. Once inside, Serina would lead the troopers to the command center where they would disable all defense systems of the base.

There had been only one element of uncertainty: had the rebels deleted her profile from their databanks in the months that had passed? She had doubted it seriously. After the events on _Tatooine_ \- and they had certainly received a report about the destruction of the _Blue Marine_ -, Peet had to consider her dead and no longer a threat to the base even if Merik had managed to convince him of his suspicion.

Confident, that her strategy would accomplish exactly what she had intended, their assault shuttle had approached the base from the direction of the western sea, flying at a low altitude and always staying in the sensor blind spot the mountain range on this side of the base created. They had been dropped off close to the ridge and had made their way across it and down the other side shortly after nightfall...

 _Had she not known that there was a military installation directly below her feet, the rock-strewn plateau between the two mountain ridges would not have provided any hints at its existence. The open space narrowed quickly toward her right as the mountain slopes drew closer and, about half a kilometer away, joined together. In the other direction, it widened visibly for the next kilometer and then ended at a bluff. At least a hundred meters below, a churning river emerged from underneath the base and wound its way toward the western sea in the deep chasm the two mountain ranges formed as drew closer again in the distance._

 _The long and serpentine path of the river had thwarted the use of the large AT-ATs or even their smaller counterparts, the AT-STs. The frontal approach of the landing bay with the assault shuttles - used as a diversion for their own action - would prove difficult due to the heavy weapons emplacements on either side of the hangar gates right underneath the rock overhang. At least, coming in from the direction of the river, they would be out of the range of the weapons emplacements on top of the base in the center of the plateau. There, two air defense towers - one equipped with a rapid-fire laser cannon, the other sporting a powerful ion cannon - could be raised from their concealments to fend off any vessels approaching from above._

 _Besides the attack of the assault shuttles, Serina's plan had placed two of the victory class star destroyers just outside the range of the ion cannon. They were tasked with preventing anybody from escaping on the direct vector from below the bluff into outer space. If a vessel would try to slip away by first following the twisting path of the river before soaring upward, they would find themselves confronted by several flights of TIEs patrolling along the mountain ridges just out of sensor range of the base and an AT-AT stationed some five klicks away in the channel of the river._

 _Had she not known what to look for and where, she would have never discovered the barely visible edges of the emergency entrance, disguised as part of the craggy mountain surface. They showed up as a thin, twisting line in the infrared range of her portable scanner. Serina handed the handheld device to the trooper behind her and removed her right glove. A glance at her chronometer confirmed that they were slightly ahead of time. She patiently waited for the remaining minutes to tick away. Three short clicks in her earbud comlink confirmed the start of the assault. When the distant noise of the approaching assault shuttles mingled with the first rounds of defense fire, Serina turned back to the entrance and placed her hand on a spot about waist-high and two handbreadths to the right of the frame._

 _It took several moments for the heat sensors in the panel to register her presence. Then a piece of rock surface slightly larger than her hand retracted and slid downwards. A keypad lit up in the upper half of the hidden panel. Without hesitation, she placed three of her fingers in the indentations below it. As she waited for the device to match her fingerprints with those registered in the databank, she immersed herself in the Force, heightening her awareness of her surroundings, of the soldiers behind her and the overbearing presence of her dark master to her left. A rapid blinking drew her attention back to the keypad._

Registered user. Enter personal security code _ _ _ _ _ _

 _Serina could not prevent a slight sigh of relief to escape her lips. She had been right. Peet had not bothered to delete her profile from their system. Her six-digit code was quickly entered. Another uneasy moment passed, then the display lit up in green:_ Access granted _. Without a noise, the rocky surface retracted several inches into the mountainside and slid upwards. The top of a narrow stairwell, twisting downward around a thick stone column became visible, illuminated by dim glowpanels, attached to the outside rock wall at regular intervals._

 _While the young woman pressed herself to one side of the doorframe to prevent the portal from reclosing, the stormtroopers squeezed past her and hurried down the steps. When the last one had entered the stairwell, Vader motioned Serina to follow them before he ducked through the low-ceilinged opening. He had just reached the first of the steps when the door slid back down and resealed the entrance._

 _The first exit from the stairwell led into the same level, where Serina's quarters had been located during her mission at the rebel base. Before they opened it, the young woman reached out with her mind to confirm that the hallway beyond was vacant. Then she motioned four of the troopers to follow her quickly toward the second emergency stairwell at the other side of the base. She had sensed several presences in the rooms that lined both sides of the long corridors, but all of them appeared to be busy with packing their personal belongings. Obviously, Peet had given the order to evacuate the installation._

 _They slipped out of the stairwell, hastened soft-footed along the hallway for about fifteen meters, before rounding the corner into the perpendicular corridor leading to the other side of the base. Nobody noticed them, as they crossed two more hallways leading from the rear turbolifts to the recreational area at the front above the command center. Everything was bathed in the eerie red of the strobe beacons at the corner of each block of quarters. Low tremors rolled through the base as the assault shuttles continued their attack on the shields in front of the hangar bay and the defense weapons answered in like manner._

 _A sense of trouble warned her just as they reached the corridor at the opposite side of the facility. With a sharp gesture, she motioned the troopers to stay behind her. She hadn't even expanded her perception through the Force when distant footfalls resounded from around the corner above the low background rumbling. As she reached with her mind for the approaching rebels, she could distinguish four presences. For an instant, she hesitated. Blasterfire would certainly draw the attention of others in the rooms along the hallway, an attention quite unwelcome at this point in time. Perhaps, the rebels would just hurry past the side corridor without noticing them. But she could not depend on that to happen, either. Unless, of course, she ensured that it did._

 _With a surge of sad regret, she pushed aside all feelings of friendship that had developed during her time with the rebels, the sensation of comradery, any sympathy for their cause, all the pity for their looming demise, and, finally, the regret itself. Then she released all those powerful emotions contained in that secluded area of her soul – among them the memories of the rage and anger permanently present in her master, her powerful desires for that man, her own anguish over the loss of her child, the fear she had felt at the consequences of that loss -, compounded them with the dread and anger she felt in the rebels at the base around her, and allowed them to fill her until there was nothing left beside them. Then she opened herself to the Force and reached for the foursome quickly approaching her position, willed their minds to waste no thought on the side corridor ahead of them, filled them solely with the desire to get to the turbolifts, to seek a way to escape the impending doom._

 _A moment later, they were past, without glancing sideways, without noticing the intruders. She waited until their footfalls had faded and the hallway was empty again. Serina did not bother to reign in the hot turmoil within her. As soon as they had placed the explosive charges in the emergency stairwell leading back to the surface, they would continue down to the next level. And then, it would be time to face the commander..._

Raucous laughter brought her back to the here and now. With a disapproving expression on her face, she cast a covert glance at the three officers in the center seats. Had she just caught the mention of her master's name?

In a derogatory tone, one of the men continued, "You might be right! I really don't know why the Emperor keeps that fossil around. But you must admit, his methods are quite effective. Did you hear about that action on _Falleen_?" The other two shook their heads, so he elaborated. "I heard there was some kind of bacterium that got loose from a lab in one of their major cities. Could have turned pretty nasty had it escaped off-planet. So, Vader had that lab and the whole city around it wiped out. Those lizards never saw it coming. And it certainly solved the problem."

At least, they acknowledged his competence in dealing with difficult situations, even if Serina could feel their contempt for the Sith Lord. They would have never dared to express that attitude in his presence. He would have ensured that they never got another chance to display that kind of mindset.

And their obnoxiousness made her wish, she could do just the same this very moment. But she had to refrain herself. After all, these officers were considered although disposable, yet valuable assets to the Empire. With a silent sigh, she dismissed the thought. Nonetheless, killing them as a warning would be much easier for her than the conquest of Farside Base had been...

 _The stairwell had been prepared and they had moved down to the exit onto the command level. Before Serina activated the access panel, she reached with her mind for her master, informing him of their readiness._

 _Only seconds later, the door slid aside in front of her. The corridor outside was empty, but she had sensed several presences further down in both directions. It would not take long for their intrusion to become known. Her thumb hovering above the activation switch of her lightsaber, she stepped through the opening. The four troopers followed suit, providing her cover in both directions. The hatch reclosed behind them, the low whoosh drowned by the constant background noise of the attack._

 _As the young woman turned toward the command center, a barely perceptible nod of her head set the next stage of their plan into motion. A dull explosion could be heard from just behind the door to the stairwell as one of the troopers activated the remote detonator. A low rumble shook the stone walls behind them, adding to the tremors constantly traveling through the base from the assault shuttles' bombardment. The team led by Lord Vader had done the same on the other side of the base and she could sense them moving toward the front end of the facility._

 _From the direction of the command center, a young rebel rounded the corner and was approaching them, absorbed in studying a datapad. He had not even noticed the group blocking his passage. Suddenly, he lifted his head and looked straight at the black-clad figure in the middle of the corridor. For an instant, an expression of utter surprise flashed across his face, then his training kicked in. "Intruders!" he yelled at the top of his lungs as he dropped the datapad and reached for his blaster._

 _With its typical hum, Serina's orange blade came to life. As she hasted toward the young man, she deflected the bolts of his blaster into the walls behind him. Without a cover, he never had a chance. The trooper beside her cut him down and hurried toward the next side corridor. By the time, he reached it, more defenders had appeared behind them. Two of the troopers covered their backs, as the group waited for the clear signal._

 _Moments later, they hurried past the side hallway and continued their approach toward the command center. At the far end of the perpendicular corridor, Serina caught a glimpse of her master's billowing black robe among a group of white armored troopers. The sound of a loud klaxon, that started to shrill from a speaker right next to her head, made the young woman cringe. Intruder alert. The command crew had caught on to their presence within the base._

 _Additional blaster fire from ahead of them forced Serina to concentrate on their forward defense. As she immersed herself even deeper into the Force, concentrating solely on the strong emotions of fear, anger, anguish, and despair around her, and shunning all feelings of pity and regret, she left the group of troopers behind and advanced forward, the whirling of her lightsaber becoming a blur as she deflected the blasts back toward the defenders. They had fortified themselves behind some crates and other makeshift barriers, but their numbers were dwindling fast._

 _With her mind, she reached for the last side corridor only seconds before she reached the corner. Just as she had expected: a group of rebels was already awaiting them. She signaled the troopers behind her to take care of the nuisance as she used the Force to sprint past the junction. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught some muzzle flashes further down the crossing hallway. The other groups of stormtroopers were obviously engaged in similar actions as they advanced toward the front of the base._

 _Then she was past and sprinted along the final block of offices and quarters of the command crew toward the makeshift barrier. The defenders increased their efforts, but, for once, Serina had no problems deflecting their blaster bolts. Another outcry, another defender was thrown backward as the reflected blast hit him square in the face. Immersed deeply in the Force, Serina vaulted across the crates and barrels and landed directly among the startled rebels._

 _Moments later, it was all over. The open space in front of the locked heavy blast doors into the command center was littered with the bodies of dead rebels. Just like her and her team, Vader and his troopers had made short work of those protecting the other lengthways hallways. A quick count of the white-clad figures revealed that they had only lost two of their men during the advance. Ordering a pair of troopers to take up position at the mouths of each of the corridors to cover their backs, Vader motioned his young apprentice to continue with the next phase of her plan._

 _The other troopers prepared the smoke grenades and signaled their readiness. They had been ordered to set their weapons to stun. Vader intended to take the command crew alive. Hopefully, they would provide him with further information about the rebel organization in this sector of space._

 _Serina pulled a small breath mask with attached goggles from a pouch on her belt and placed it over her face. Without further hesitation, she stepped up to the activation pad next to the blast doors. As she placed her hand on it, she wondered briefly if Peet had already drawn the right conclusion. He had to be aware that their intrusion had only been possible due to inside information. Was he aware of the identity of the traitor? If not, he would be in for quite a surprise._

 _The heavy doors slid aside, drawing startled gasps from within. Before anyone could react, several dull clunks could be heard. Immediately, thick smoke rose from the spots where the grenades had come to rest and quickly spread throughout the vast room. It would not only obstruct the rebels' view but would also cause severe coughing fits and runny eyes, rendering the victims quite defenseless._

 _Once the command crew had recovered from their surprise at the unexpectedly quick breach of the command center, they took cover behind the many terminals spread out across the large room and started firing at the waiting stormtroopers, but, as the smoke quickly filled the air, the blaster fire started to dwindle along with their diminishing sight. When the first coughs could be heard, Serina motioned the troopers to advance into the room. One after another, the hiding men and women were located and stunned. Serina followed behind the white-clad figures, ensuring that nobody escaped their attention._

 _By the time, the smoke started to dissipate, all the defenders had been immobilized. As the troopers started to drag their stunned captives to the right side of the large room, Serina stepped up to the main control station. She was quite pleased to find it locked down, but not damaged. That would certainly simplify matters..._

"Prepare for reversion to realspace. Arrival on _Alderaan_ will be in approximately fifty minutes." The announcement pulled Serina out of her introspection. It also interrupted the ongoing chatter in the center seats. But not for long. No sooner had the mottled blur of hyperspace been replaced by the distant pinpoints of the surrounding stars than the three men picked their bragging back up where they had left it off moments earlier.

Serina had to restrain herself to not show her disgust openly. These three were certainly asking to be taught a lesson. Their kind of haughtiness was an attribute far from acceptable even for an Imperial officer, at least in her opinion. But she would have to endure their behavior until the vessel settled down at the garrison. It would not do to get any of the other passengers involved in the action she had in mind.

Again, her thoughts wandered back to the events at Farside Base...

 _The smoke in the command center had just cleared out when Serina tore the mask off her face and walked over to the still motionless forms of the captured rebels. She could feel the tremors of the ongoing fighting two levels below her in the large hangar bay. Once she had lowered the protective shields and turned off the other automatic defensive measures, Vader had given the assault shuttles the order to engage the remainder of the rebels busy readying the last of the vessels there for departure. A handful of ships had already tried to escape, but none of them had gotten very far. The burning wrecks were visible through the large window panes of the command center, indicated by the smoke rising from their crash sites further down the valley._

 _Vader had ordered four of the stormtroopers to stay inside the command center and guard the captives. The others were sent to secure the rest of the level. Serina had reclosed the heavy blast doors and had turned off all power to the turbolifts. With the emergency stairwells destroyed, the rebels would be caught on whatever level of the base they had been at that very instant. Once the hangar was secure, the level below and the one above them would be easy to clear out._

 _The troopers had placed the stunned bodies along the unobstructed right side of the large room. They had been relieved of anything that could be used as a weapon. The contents of their pockets had been removed and formed small piles at their feet. Several of them were just beginning to stir when Serina started to inspect whom they had caught._

 _Some of the faces were quite familiar while others had obviously joined up with the movement after her departure nearly half a year prior. She quickly divided the twenty-some captives into three groups: those she knew to hold important positions were dragged over to the left side, those few she didn't know at all stayed just where they were, and the rest, most of them operators of the terminals in the command center, but without any command authority, were dragged outside past the blast doors. Serina didn't bother to waste a thought as to their fate. This kind of concern would have only caused her problems with her master. It was already difficult enough to maintain the sort of emotions he expected of her and to not give in to pity or regret._

 _Soon, there were only three stunned forms left. As she cast a quick glance at the face of the next man at her feet, she flinched at the hate visible in the green eyes staring up at her. The features were only too familiar. But nothing was left of the sympathy and compassion they had held the last time she had seen them. Now there was only contempt and anger written all over Peet's face, the same emotions radiating from his presence in the Force. But the anger was directed more at himself than at her. He apparently blamed himself for not having believed what Merik had tried to tell him about the young woman._

 _Heavy footfalls approached from behind. "You have located him?"_

 _Vader's dark rumble caused Serina to tear her eye's away from Peet's face as she turned toward her master. She nodded in confirmation. "Yes, master, this is Peet Snoaker, the commander of Farside Base."_

 _Vader motioned to one of the troopers. The white-clad soldier reached down and pulled the rebel to his feet. But the stun was still partially in effect and Peet's legs buckled under him. With a viselike grip, the trooper held him upright and waited for further instructions._

 _Serina felt her master's expectant gaze upon her. "We can take him to his private quarters. They are just around the corner," she suggested._

 _A barely perceptible nod confirmed Vader's approval and, moments later, they were on the move..._

Sadness mingled with shame flashed across Serina's face as she thought back at what had followed. Vader had interrogated Peet and later the other leading members of Farside Base, first on the planet and afterward up on the _Devastator_. She had assisted him, always aware of the accusation in the eyes of those who recognized her from her time with the rebels. It had been a constant effort, but she had managed to keep any kind of pity or regret out of her mind and emotions, filling her whole being with the anger and hate around her for the duration of the whole action.

But it had been a dance on a knife-edge. Playing with a fire she knew would consume her if she wasn't exceedingly careful, she had felt the power those emotions granted her, an access to the Force that was quick and continuously at the ready. She had bathed in the pleasure of seeing her strategy succeed and feeling the approval of her master. And there had been the satisfaction of wresting tidbit after tidbit of information out of their captives. They had discovered a lot of details about the rebels' organization, details, that would certainly help the Empire put a stop to their operations for the near future, at least in these sectors of the rim. It would not hinder the dissidents to regroup again, but it would take them quite some time to do so.

And yet, whenever she had come to rest - although those times had been short and far apart - she had not been able to shake the uneasy feelings those emotions left in her, a sense of wrongness, of danger, of the unavoidable doom she would have to face if she continued down that path. For the time being, she had ignored those premonitions, had pushed them aside and continued with what her master had expected of her. But several weeks later, back on _Imperial Center_ and in the absence of her dark lord, the feelings had returned, crashing over her, leaving her hollowed and ashamed, overwhelmed by the awareness of the risk she had taken, the risk of succumbing to the dark side, of becoming what she abhorred the most: another lost soul, drowning forever in her own evil machinations, just like the Emperor and so many others before him.

There had been two downsides to the whole operation: although Serina had checked every dead body and every live captive, she had not found the one man she had been anxious to locate: Merik. Peet had finally, among other information the interrogations had elicited, confirmed that her one-time boyfriend had left the base shortly after the destruction of the _Blue Marine_ had become known to them.

The second unwelcome discovery was the fact that Herman Rilgan, the man they had hoped would lead them to one of the main supporters of the rebel movement, had been on the first vessel that had tried to escape from the base. The ship had been shot down and there had been no survivors. They had recovered his dead body, but it had not provided them with any clues. And no matter how intensive and how painful the interrogations of Peet and the other command crew got, they could not reveal what they didn't know. Serina had even invaded Peet's mind shortly before his death to confirm this fact - an action, that still haunted her with a severe feeling of guilt.

And now she was on her way to _Alderaan_ to follow the meager lead they had left. If she managed to uncover whom the middle-aged man had been working with and for, she might uncover who had aided the rebel efforts at Farside Base during the past years.

But before she had to concentrate on her actual mission, she would demand retribution for the nuisance that had accompanied her trip to the planet that had once - rightfully, as far as she was concerned - been considered the soul of the Old Republic. Those three officers would remember the conclusion of this trip for a very long time.

* * *

"Prepare for deboarding in five minutes. Have your ID-cards and travel documents ready for verification." For once, the incessant chatter from the center seats was replaced by the sound of rustling as everybody followed the orders of the shuttle's captain. The last few minutes of the approach to the landing field of the small Imperial garrison was just as smooth as the long hours prior and only a light bump indicated the settling down. The exit ramp was lowered, and a breeze of cold air carried the smell of snow and fir trees inside.

As Serina got up out of her seat and shouldered her satchel, she concentrated on her annoyance at the army officers. As she mulled over the sensation in her mind, she allowed it to grow stronger, turn into cold anger, and fill her whole being. Ahead of everybody else, the three men descended the ramp and walked toward the entrance into the garrison. Before anybody else could follow them, the young woman pushed passed them and hurried quickly after the officers, drawing some raised eyebrows and a few grumpy remarks from the other passengers.

A terminal station had been installed on the narrow walkway that connected the landing pad with the main building. It was manned by a young army sergeant and a silver protocol droid. Behind it, two pairs of stormtroopers stood guard on either side of the heavy blast gates that led inside. The structure itself reflected the typical _Alderaanian_ style: kept in white and with a flowing architecture, it formed a perfect bridge between the green fields around it and the white clouds above.

Serina doubted seriously that it had been built by the Empire. Most likely, it had been appropriated as a dutiful contribution of the peaceful planet to the needs of the Empire and then converted into a garrison. It was probably one of the smallest such installations she had ever seen. From the records, she had studied at _Imperial Center_ , it housed about five hundred base personnel. One-third of them were combat forces, but their activities were limited to using speeder bikes and landspeeders. There was also one squadron of TIE fighters stationed there, but no AT-ATs or AT-STs. The other two-thirds consisted of an overly large contingent of intelligence officers, various kinds of technical personnel, several groups of scientists, as well as some diplomatic and trade specialists. And, of course, the required command personnel and their staff.

By the time, the three officers reached the checkpoint and waited for the sergeant to verify their IDs, Serina had nearly caught up with them. A few feet before she reached the terminal itself, a narrow groove crossed her path. _Perfect_ , she thought to herself wryly. Just as she stepped across it, she allowed her foot to catch on the edge, causing her to stumble the next few steps toward and bump into the last of the three waiting men. As if to steady herself, she grabbed his arm and pulled herself back to an upright position.

"Hey!" With an angry outcry, the dark-haired man whirled around toward her and tried to free his arm from her grip. But as he growled at her in disgust, their eyes locked and whatever he had intended to bellow into her face got stuck in his throat. Mesmerized by the yellow glint in her otherwise blue eyes, he just glared at her for long seconds.

Then the moment was past. "I'm so sorry," Serina let go of his arm and took a step backward. Raising her hands in a defensive gesture, she launched into a string of apologies.

"Just forget it," the officer cut her off and turned back to the waiting sergeant. Moments later, he was past the checkpoint. The other two men were already waiting halfway toward the blast doors.

Serina's gaze followed him for an instant. Then she turned toward the checkpoint, quickly wiping a wicked little smile off her face.

"Your ID," the young man at the terminal requested with a slightly impatient tone of voice.

"Of course, I've got it right here." She reached into the side pocket of her jacket. But when she pulled her hand back out, it was still empty. "I'm so sorry," she exclaimed, as she rummaged frantically through her other pockets, "I still had it just a moment ago." Behind her, the other passengers from the shuttle had already lined up and she could sense a wave of impatience from them as well. They would thank her for the delay shortly.

Before she could start searching her satchel for the missing ID-card, a sudden commotion drew everybody's attention toward the entrance into the building.

"Did you really think I didn't hear what you just said about our discussion?" With angry accusation in his voice, the dark-haired officer had grabbed the shoulder of one of the other men and jerked him to a standstill just a few meters away from the guarding stormtroopers. "What did you plan on doing with what we talked about? Were you going to rat on me? Did you really think you could get an advantage over me through that?" His voice got louder with each word as he talked himself into a rage.

Lifting his hands to mollify his enraged fellow officer, the other man tried to keep his calm. "Listen, what gives you that idea? Why would I say anything like that?"

The third man also tried to act as an intermediary. "Hey, calm down. What's gotten into you? Nobody said anything of that sort!" He placed a comradely hand on the dark-haired man's shoulder but was shrugged off with an angry retort. "Hey, stay out of it. I wasn't talking to you."

During the following moments, the controversy escalated. First, there was some shoving around, then the first punch fell. By the time, the stormtroopers decided to interfere, the three men were no longer the imposing officers who had departed the shuttle: bloody noses, disheveled uniforms, and even some black eyes. As the troopers pulled them apart and shoved them through the blast doors that opened at their approach, the dark-haired man shook his head in sudden confusion. What had gotten into him? Why had he started this fight? What a great introduction to a new position at a new duty station! Hanging his head in disgust at himself, he followed the others inside. Then they were gone, and the blast gates closed behind them.

Serina could sense a wave of gloating from the other passengers. It was quite doubtful that that officer would ever discover the reason for his moment of madness. This time, she didn't bother to wipe the grin off her face as she turned back to the sergeant and handed him her ID-card, that had appeared in her hand as if by magic.

* * *

"That was some good work-out today," Sal remarked in between two forkfuls of her starblossom pastry. "This new trainer put us through some really tough routines."

"Uh-huh," Serina nodded in agreement, but it was obvious that her mind was elsewhere, as she poked her fork unenthusiastically into another piece of her mixed berries and pears salad and shoved it into her mouth.

With one eyebrow raised in quizzical concern, Sal favored her new-found friend for a long moment. Silence lingered between the two young women, as she finished the last bites of her dessert. Then she put her fork down and leaned across the table toward Serina, cupping her chin in her hands. "What's wrong? Don't tell me you are just tired from the work-out. Something is bothering you."

Before the renewed silence got too profound, Serina pushed the half-empty bowl with the fruit salad to the side and mirrored her friend's posture. With a deep sigh, she replied, "It's not that something is wrong. Not in the literal sense of the word." She paused for greater emphasis. "But I've gotten so attached to this beautiful place in the past weeks, I don't want to go back to _Imperial Center_. You know, it's really strange. Ever since I arrived here, I have the feeling as if some kind of pressure has been lifted, as if I'm more at liberty here than I've ever been back home. But time is flying. Just three more weeks and my assignment will be over."

"Then stay. You don't have to go back, do you?"

Serina wagged her head in dismay. "I wish, I could. But even if they just work for the Imperial armed forces, still: Comtech is a good employer. They pay quite well. How am I supposed to find a comparable job here in Aldera within that short a time? And if I don't, I'll have to go back, whether I want to or not."

"Hmm," Sal's brow knitted in earnest contemplation as she pondered the problem. Then her expression brightened visibly as a thought crossed her mind. "You majored in communications, right?"

Serina nodded in confirmation. "Yes, communications. But my specialty is data encoding and decoding programs. That's what I have been working with for the last five years."

"Then I might have just the solution for your problem. Let me do some calling around tomorrow. We'll meet again tomorrow night at the rec-center. Same time as today?"

An expression of tentative hope replaced the gloom on Serina's face. "Sure, same time as today. And hey, if you really manage to get me some job in Aldera, I'll be forever in your debt!"

Several minutes later, the two women had paid for their dinner and parted ways. Leaning back into the comfortable seat of the hovertaxi on her way back to the garrison, Serina considered what she had achieved so far.

 _She had come well prepared to_ Alderaan _, at least as well prepared as one could be with such a meager lead. Her cover-story would allow her to stay at the garrison, but with much more liberty than a regular soldier. Her first goal had been to make contact with somebody working within the government, build a friendly relationship, and use it to secure some kind of employment there. Once on the inside, she could start with her proper investigation into the connections of Herman Rilgan._

 _Sal Corban, the young woman she had selected from the list of suitable candidates, had been the closest match to all her requirements: working as communications aide within the trade department of the_ Alderaanian _government, about her own age, single and with more interest in her advancement than in the opposite gender, sporty and fairly outspoken despite her youth, all attributes, that made her somebody whom Serina could relate to easily. The rec-center the young woman visited frequently had provided the perfect site for their first meeting and within just a few weeks, the two women had developed a good rapport and a growing friendship, nudged along gently by Serina's special abilities whenever needed._

 _With her assignment at the garrison quickly nearing its completion, Serina had decided to use their regular dinner after the work-out at the rec-center to initiate the next step in her plan. Now it was up to her new friend to accomplish what she could never manage herself without raising undue suspicion._

* * *

The door whooshed open and a middle-aged man stepped into the brightly lit office. The young woman looked up from her display and favored him with a quizzical expression. With a movement of her hand, swifter than his eyes could catch, she pressed a button on her keyboard, replacing the datafile she had been studying during the past hour with something more appropriate for the task she had been assigned.

"Are you finished with decrypting the latest transmission from Carbanti United? You know the technical division: always slightly impatient. They want to place their orders." Manu Leos smiled at their latest addition to the team of communications aides in the trade department of the _Alderaanian_ government.

Serina nodded eagerly. "I got finished with it already half an hour ago. I transferred the document to," she quickly called up a name on her display, "Sevin Loor. Do you want me to check if he got it?"

"No, no, that's ok, I'm sure he received it," Manu dismissed the issue. He regarded her with an appraising expression. "Actually, I wanted to see you for a different reason. It isn't really part of your assignment, but, from your résumé, I believe you could help us with a minor issue that came up a short time ago."

Serina gazed at him with the same quizzical look as before, but now he had her full attention. "Sure, if there's anything I can do for you, just let me know what it is."

The middle-aged man hesitated for an instant - an unusual reluctance to continue easily discernable in his presence in the Force - then he pushed some of his qualms aside and continued, "Perchance, we intercepted an encrypted transmission yesterday. We have tried to decrypt it, but, so far, have not succeeded. Due to the source, however, it is of utter importance to discover the content of the message." Again, he paused, obviously not certain, how to continue, and just as plainly unsure if she should be entrusted with this matter.

Serina didn't have to read his thoughts to know where this conversation was leading to and who the originator of the transmission in question had most likely been. And this situation was much too intriguing to allow his distrust of her loyalty to squander the chance it posed. With a peculiar tone in her voice, she informed him, "You can fully trust me in this matter. I only want to help you. There is no need to doubt my loyalty."

For a moment, his face took on a peculiar expression as he agreed in a casual tone of voice, "Yes, I can trust you with this matter. You only want to help. You are loyal to our cause." Then, without further hesitation, he continued with his request, "You used to work for the Imperial decrypting department at the garrison. I am sure, you have a far-reaching knowledge of all kinds of encrypting routines. Perhaps, you would find the proper way to decrypt the message we intercepted." He gazed at her expectantly, no longer any sign of distrust in his expression.

Now, it was Serina's time to show a proper amount of reluctance. He had been very careful to not reveal the source of the message and she was not about to stir up this nest of hornets. She wagged her head slowly, her face portraying an uncertainty she didn't truly feel, "I can try, but I can't promise you any success."

"That's all right. A try is all I ask for. But if you succeed, we would certainly make it worth your while." He smiled at her broadly, convinced that nobody would spurn the chance he was just offering her by giving less than their best. And Serina had certainly no intentions of disappointing the man.

* * *

"Stang!" Serina mumbled to herself with an exasperated sigh. She slammed the datapad on the top of her desk and got to her feet. Records after records and still no clue as to who had supported Rilgan and Farside Base through him. She needed some fresh air and a vigorous workout to clear her head and, through it, perhaps some fresh ideas on how to continue.

More than two months had already passed since her arrival at _Alderaan_ and she still had no results to show for all her efforts. The decryption had been fairly simple, although she had made it look to have taken her much longer than it truly had. In the days that had followed this unusual assignment, she had dropped enough hints in various conversations to prove her dissatisfaction with some of the developments in the Empire.

Shortly after, Sal had introduced her to another employee in the trade department, a young man by the name of Derik Lors who had claimed to find her attractive and interesting. Although Serina had been aware that it had only been a pretense to feel her out on a quite impersonal level, she had played along. And had been rewarded with an invitation to join a small cell of rebels, working out of Aldera, most of them in the direct employ of the _Alderaanian_ government and busy with acquiring items other rebel cells needed. They had recently lost their encryption specialist and she had been considered the ideal replacement.

So far, so good. But now - more than a whole month later - she still wasn't any the wiser as to who funded the whole operation. It had to be somebody in the higher echelons of the government. But whosoever he or she was, they were covering their tracks well, leaving no loose ends whatsoever that she could use to discover their identity. In all the data she had searched, Herman Rilgan's name had only come up one single time in a manner that had hinted at his involvement with the shipments. And, had she not known of his presence at Farside Base, she would have never drawn the right conclusion from the vague information in the heavily encrypted message.

Perhaps the upcoming reception at the Royal Palace for this year's Coronation Day celebration would provide her with more clues. She still had to smile at her friend's reaction when she had informed her of her "good fortune" ...

 _"Whoa, that's what I call really lucky!" Sal exclaimed when Serina told her about the invitation. "This is my fifth year at the Trade office and I'm still waiting to be selected."_

 _Serina gave her a bashful smile. "Perhaps I should give you the invitation. You've been waiting already for such a long time."_

 _But her friend dismissed the idea right out of hand. "No way. It's your invitation and you are going to enjoy every minute of it!"_

 _"Are you sure? It just doesn't feel right if I go. You should have been picked, not me." Of course, Serina would never reveal to the young woman across from her that her "luck" was anything but coincidence. The bi-annual receptions - one on Coronation and the other on Founding Day - were highly coveted chances of meeting members of the royal class of the_ Alderaanian _society. All governmental employees could enter their names into a lottery, provided they hadn't been selected within the previous ten years. Out of all entries, one hundred names were selected randomly, granting them an attendance at the day-long entertainment at the Royal Palace in Aldera._

 _But where a computer was tasked with making a random selection, there was always the chance for manipulation, a task by no means more difficult for Serina than decrypting Imperial transmissions._

 _"Don't worry about it," Sal assured her, "it's all right. Who knows, perhaps I'll be lucky next spring. Do you know already what you are going to wear?"_

... the following days had been spent with selecting the perfect outfit for the occasion: plain enough to not appear overdressed and intriguing enough to leave a lasting impression in the minds of those she would try to draw into a conversation.

When everything had been prepared, she had returned to her diligent studying of the information extracted from the governmental databanks. And she had been at it ever since. But in just two more days, her patience would hopefully be rewarded.

* * *

"Serina!" The voice of the young man who greeted her at the entrance into the huge ballroom contained enough elation to conjure an involuntary smile on the young woman's face. He wore a plain version of the typical _Alderaanian_ cloak in medium-grey over his suit kept in a slightly darker color. It covered his torso from the left shoulder to his right hip as well as his right arm. Unlike the more elaborate versions worn by the higher officials present at the reception, his sported no folds and only a short unadorned collar.

Although Serina had discovered his name on the list of invitees she had studied in preparation for the evening, she showed herself astonished. "Hi, Derik. What a surprise! I didn't know you were one of the lucky ones as well!" Of course, it hadn't been luck in his case either, that the young woman was certain of.

"It came as a surprise for me, too," he explained. "A friend of mine received the invitation. But last week, he got severely sick and passed it on to me. I just hope, I can pay him back the favor one of these days."

"Too bad for him! I hope he recovers quickly, though." _If his "friend" is truly sick at all_ , she thought wryly. More likely, Derik had been given the task to keep an eye on her. Apparently, somebody didn't quite trust her loyalty yet. It might make her task for the evening more difficult, but far from impossible. With an elated smile of her own, she took his proffered arm and allowed him to lead her into the huge ballroom.

* * *

At this time of the night, the large reading room next to the library was normally made use of only by very few. Now, however, it was quickly getting crowded as all kinds of beings, human and alien alike, followed the Viceroy's invitation.

It had been an impressive speech. And yet, as far as Serina was concerned, the most memorable of it had been which issues had remained unspoken. Bail Organa had been exceedingly careful. Not one word had been uttered that could have been interpreted as opposing the opinions propagated by the Empire. He had talked about the past, about the horrible events of the Clone Wars, and how _Alderaan_ had chosen a way of disarmed peacefulness as a result. And about the urgent need to remain on this path in the light of the recent unrests in other parts of the galaxy as well as on the planet itself.

Then he had warmly welcomed all those who had taken up permanent residence on _Alderaan_ during the past years, especially those, who were in attendance at the reception. The same program that had been tasked with selecting the invitees from among the participants of the governmental lottery, had also issued invitations to fifty beings that had relocated to the planet in the previous two years. This special group Bail Organa had invited to a personal meeting after the banquet that had followed the official part of the event.

And most of them had eagerly complied. But who wouldn't have? Nobody would pass up a chance to meet the famous Viceroy in person.

And although Serina had attended as one of the governmental employees, nobody would mind her joining this special group. After all, she certainly qualified as much as a _New-Alderaanian_ as any of them did.

Up close, Bail Organa was even more impressive that he had been from a distance. Tall, still dark-haired despite his age of approaching sixty, with tan skin and compassionate brown eyes, he appeared regal and yet approachable at the same time. His whole presence, physical and perceived through the Force, spoke of his commitment to civic virtue and his devotion to upholding peace on _Alderaan_ and beyond. He took his time and personally greeted each one of those present, inquiring their name and a short recap of their life story.

A young girl accompanied him, from Serina's estimation around thirteen or fourteen years of age. A slender build, at least a head shorter than herself, and with a quite rebellious streak - if the impression, Serina perceived through the Force, proved true - the teenager reminded her of how she herself had been at that age. It had been a time of leaving childhood and unencumbered activities far behind and moving on into a much more serious stage of life. For Serina, this change had been the result of a two-year process, that had started with the loss of her parents and had culminated in a night at an Imperial garrison, but she doubted that similar events had befallen the young princess. And yet, despite her certainly sheltered upbringing and all the amenities the girl had the privilege of enjoying, she appeared surprisingly grown up, far beyond her physical age.

Slowly, the crowd around Organa and his daughter was thinning as those finished with their short, personal conversations with the Viceroy left the room and rejoined the ongoing festivities in the ballroom. Serina had stayed in the background, apparently absorbed in studying some of the paintings adorning the walls, while she watched the proceedings out of the corner of her eye. As the last two guests, a human and a Sullustan, stepped forward to meet the prominent host, Serina turned away from a picture portraying the rich green flatlands called the Apalis Coast and joined them. Soon, they took their leave as well and Organa turned his attention toward the young woman.

"I was already wondering if you came to meet us or just to study our gorgeous pictures," he commented dryly as he shook Serina's hand. Then he motioned to the girl at his side. "This is my daughter Leia."

Dutifully, Serina exchanged a quick handshake with the young teenager. Although she was precautious to only sense what was passed on into her by the physical contact without actively applying her innate abilities, she was surprised at the strong personality she sensed in the girl despite her age, at the natural barriers around her mind and at something else she couldn't identify right at that moment. But there was no time to investigate further as Bail Organa called her attention back to the purpose of this meeting. "Please, tell us a little bit about yourself. Perhaps, you want to start with your name and what brought you to our peaceful planet."

"Of course," Serina replied as she turned back toward him. "My name is Serina Wanders. And, to be honest," she averted her gaze in apparent embarrassment, "I don't really belong to the group you invited to this meeting. Even so, I … I would have qualified." She looked back up at him with an apologetic expression. Without giving the Viceroy a chance to respond, she continued, "You see, I came to _Alderaan_ about three months ago for an assignment at the Imperial garrison. My employer at that time, Comtech, supplies the Imperial forces with encrypting technology - specialized computers and the software for them. It was my job to train the personnel at the garrison in the use of the new programs. At one of the recreational centers in Aldera, I met a young woman and we quickly became good friends. When she found out that I had taken a great liking to _Alderaan_ and didn't want to return to _Imperial Center_ , she arranged for me to get a job at the trade department. I really enjoy the work there and I have made a lot of friends in the past months. I was really surprised when I got picked in the lottery for the governmental employees. And that's how I ended up here tonight." She fell silent and gazed at him expectantly. How would he react? Would he consider talking to her a waste of his precious time? Or had her story intrigued him enough to continue the conversation.

"Leia, dear," a call from the door drew everybody's attention toward a stately woman in her early fifties, who strode into the room, another teenager in tow. "It is getting quite late. You and Winter will retire to your rooms now," she informed her daughter. Serina took a curious look at the other girl, who mirrored Queen Breha's regal bearing. She appeared to be the same age as Leia, but that's where the similarities ended. At least half a head taller, hair the color of fresh-fallen snow, and eyes with the most intensive blue Serina had ever seen, Winter - although her physical appearance gave clear evidence to the fact that she was not a biological child of the Organa's - resembled everything anyone would expect of a future queen: a natural grace and poise combined with a quiet stateliness, traits quite unusual in one so young and in stark contrast to the tomboyish nature Serina had sensed in her adoptive sister.

"But, mom, …" As if to emphasize the contrast between both girls even more, Leia started to object to her mother's orders, but the Viceroy quickly placed his hand on his daughter's shoulder, cutting her off in midsentence. "Your mother is right. It is getting late." Then he gave her a slight nudge, directing her toward the waiting queen.

Although the young girl certainly didn't agree with her father's decision, she had learned to not fight a lost cause. After a short nod in Serina's direction and a quick "Good night!", she strode toward the door, head held high in silent defiance. Moments later, the queen and her daughters were gone.

"Now, where were we?" the Viceroy redemanded Serina's attention, although her mind was still stunned by the last expression she had seen in the young girl's eyes and the emotions contained therein. There had been much defiance, yes, and also an amount of curiosity regarding the conversation she would be missing. But the main emotion that had encompassed all the others had been a heartfelt love for her father, full of adoration and the willingness to accept his decisions even if she didn't agree with them. And, this had not been the first time that she had seen this same expression in a pair of brown eyes, set in a pretty face framed by wavy dark hair. But the memory of that other time eluded her. Reluctantly, she pushed the thought aside and concentrated on the conversation with her prominent host.

"So, you used to work for the garrison," he considered thoughtfully what she had told him. "If you worked with encrypting programs, you must be highly specialized in that subject."

Serina nodded her consent. "I might work as communications aide now, but encoding and decoding messages is what I'm really good at. That's why I've been doing more of that kind of work for Mr. Leos lately." She carefully watched to see if the name caused any reaction in the Viceroy. But nothing! Either he really didn't know the man, or he had a perfect check on his emotions. "And for Derik Lors, a good friend of mine." This time, she perceived a slight flicker of piqued curiosity. Apparently, the young rebel wasn't completely unknown to Organa.

But he didn't bother to delve into that subject. "I assume, that Comtech was paying you quite well. Specialists of your kind are hard to find and certainly worth their pay. So, why did you leave that kind of secure employment? I don't think that working for the _Alderaanian_ government is quite as profitable as your previous job."

Again, Serina nodded. "That's true, but credits were never my main reason for working for anybody. It all has to fit together: the work, the employer, the location, the coworkers. And with the Imperial forces, you can't really tell what you will find at the next assignment, especially, me being a woman. Some of them are quite prejudiced against anyone not hu-man," she emphasized the second part of the word, eliciting a slightly pained smile to appear on the Viceroy's face.

"That is pitifully true, indeed," he agreed. "We _Alderaanians_ have a different attitude, as you have certainly experienced. Therefore, welcome again and I hope you will be able to experience a peaceful and fulfilled life here." Tilting his head in a dismissing gesture, he added, "Please excuse me. I need to get back to the reception now." Then he stepped around her and headed for the exit.

For a long moment, Serina just stood there, pondering the short conversation. With a feeling of slight disgust rising within her, she started walking to the door to follow him back toward the ballroom. If the meager results of the past hour were any indication of the insights to be gathered during the rest of the evening, she might as well have stayed at home.

* * *

With slight pangs of regret, Serina watched the blue-green ball of a planet shrink quickly on the rear-facing display as the small freighter accelerated toward the hyperspace entry point of its first jump. Although it had been only a couple of months, she had come to cherish the peaceful world with its unspoiled natural beauty. But it had also proved to be quite a dead end as far as her mission was concerned.

With the Viceroy's return to _Imperial Center_ the day after the reception and no hints at any connection of the ruling house of _Alderaan_ to the small rebel cell she had become a member of, the only remaining option of gaining additional information for her master was to follow the most promising of the supply trails.

To convince Derik that she desired a stronger involvement with their activities had not been difficult. Getting him to agree to her accompanying one of their shipments off-planet had been somewhat more challenging, but the rebels were always in need of somebody experienced with communications for those trips. Thus, they had quickly overcome their reluctance and had asked her to fill in the gap when the young man assigned to this transport had suddenly disappeared. She had made sure that he would reawaken long after the transport had departed and that he would retain no memory of how he had gotten to a secluded place several miles inside the Glarus Valley.

Moments later, the pinpoints of distant stars turned into streaks and were quickly replaced by the strange swirls of hyperspace. "The jump will take quite some time," Morgan, the mission commander and pilot of the small vessel advised her with a companionable grin. "It would be advisable to catch some sleep during that time. You might not get much, once we arrive at our destination."

"Thanks, I'll do just that," Serina replied with a smile of her own and adjusted the backrest of her chair at the communications station to the farthest reclining position possible. Although she was not tired at all, it was wise to follow the man's suggestion. Calming her mind with a quick meditative exercise, she soon slipped into a light, but restful sleep…

 _…the walls of the corridor they were passing through still bore the signs of the crude mining equipment used to relieve their rocky surroundings of whatever minerals or ores they had once held. The ground they were walking on had been paved with some sort of quick drying duracrete. Every couple of meters a weak glowpanel lit their path. A young man, slightly taller than herself with a shock of unruly, black hair, guided them through the labyrinth with Morgan following close behind. Together with Cory, the third member of the freighter's crew, she was pushing a hovercart with half of their cargo while two other men followed behind them with another one of the utility vehicles holding the rest of the supplies._

 _After several more twists and turns, the corridor opened into a large, brightly lit chamber. Along the wall to her right, deep recesses carved out of the rock walls had been transformed into small storage areas. Across from the entrance, closed hatches led to additional rooms, probably the living quarters for the crew of the base. On the left, a thick durasteel wall had been installed to partition off a part of the chamber. Huge sliding doors set in the center thereof led into what Serina assumed to be the command center of the installation._

 _The young man led the group to one of the storage rooms and all six of them spent the next few minutes, stacking the supplies into the half-empty shelves along the uneven walls. Soon the carts were emptied, and the two members of the base took them back to the hangar bay, while Morgan and his crew followed the young man back into the main chamber. "The General wants to meet you," he told them as he stepped toward the entrance to the command center._

 _Before he reached the huge doors, they slid aside to reveal a most remarkable figure: tall, upper body encased by metal armor, grim, heavily scarred face, a topknot of grey, nearly white hair, a brown cloak, hung from two metal shoulder pads, and a sheath slung diagonally across his shoulder, holding his weapon, of which only the end of a metal grip was visible. An uncontrollable shiver ran down her spine as his brown eyes pierced through her…_

…with a gasp, Serina jolted upright in her chair. Her heart was pounding heavily in her chest and it took her several seconds to muster enough concentration to calm herself. She cast a quick glance at the two other seats in the small cockpit. But, to her relief, they were unoccupied. The transparisteel viewports still depicted the strange swirls of hyperspace and a quick check of her station confirmed that no messages had come in during her nap. A glance at her chronometer revealed another surprise: she had slept a good eight hours and they had to be close to reversion already.

 _A Jedi!_ was the only constant her mind could hold onto as her thoughts raced frantically with the limited options open to her. _Should I try to stay onboard? But with what kind of a reason? A sudden sickness? Possible, but if that Jedi senses my presence, he will certainly come looking for me. Kill Morgan and Cory and take the ship to the next Imperial outpost? But I don't know where Morgan is taking us. The coordinates of the next jump are not in the system yet. I have no idea where the rebel base is located. If I don't go there, I've got nothing to report to Vader. And if he discovers that I forbore the chance of finding the location of a Jedi, I'll have hell to pay. No, I must go there. It's the only way. But what am I going to do about that Jedi?..._

"Awake again, sleepyhead?" Morgan's friendly jibe brought the mind carousel in Serina's head to an abrupt stop.

"Just following your advice," she replied with a sheepish expression and added more seriously, "Are we getting close?"

"Not quite yet. We'll drop back to realspace in a little while. Then two more jumps and we'll be there," Morgan informed her as he slipped into the pilot's seat. "Go get yourself some dinner. But you should hurry. You know Cory: he's always hungry. And he's back there all alone…" The commander favored the young woman with a meaningful grin, as she jumped to her feet and hurried toward the small galley at the back of the freighter.

* * *

Nobody would have guessed that any of the slowly tumbling hunks - once part of a small planet, that had spread itself into an asteroid belt around its nearly depleted red dwarf sun - were anything but lifeless, useless pieces of rock.

When they dropped back to realspace just beyond the outer edge and slightly above the ecliptic of the system, not even a weak energy reading appeared on the sensors. There were no other ships around and neither was there any com traffic. For an instant, Serina considered if they had possibly misjumped. But Morgan's unperturbed demeanor was proof that they were exactly where they were supposed to be.

"Send out the signal," Morgan ordered as he adjusted the freighter's direction toward the asteroid belt and accelerated.

At first, nothing changed. Serina cast an inquisitive glance at her commander, but she could sense nothing but calm assurance from him. She turned her gaze back to the sensor display. They passed the two outlying orbits and decelerated as they approached what had once been the second of four small-sized planets.

Bling!

"Incoming signal," Serina called out and transferred the location of the sensor beacon to the navigational console. It was only a weak signal, hardly detectable beyond the edges of the system. But it guided them straight toward one of the midsized asteroids. Shaped like an oblong potato, it was about fifty kilometers in length and twenty in diameter with both ends slightly thicker than the middle. Since the long axis was pointing toward the sun, it was not tumbling head over heels as some of the other planet chunks but was limited to a rotation about its main axis. Although still a challenge to anybody's piloting skills, this fact simplified the approach significantly.

And the ease, with which Morgan maneuvered their vessel around the various planetary fragments and into synchronicity with the asteroid's rotation, was proof that this wasn't the first time he had been confronted with this special task. On the rocky surface below them, long shadows were cast by the ridges of deep craters as they achieved a stationary position above what appeared just another deep indentation created by the impact of a smaller chunk of the unfortunate planet. Moments later, the invisible grip of a tractor beam took hold of their ship and pulled them downward toward the rock-strewn, barely discernable bottom of the crater...

…and past an invisible magcon field into the mouth of a huge hangar. Bright lights came on in the sidewalls as soon as they had fully passed the entrance and heavy blast gates had slipped back into place sealing the opening. A barely noticeable jolt traveled through the freighter as it set down. Several landing pads, separated by red markings on the floor, were arranged in a circle around a large central structure containing the power source and the projectors for the tractor beam and the magcon field.

There were only two other vessels in the huge cavern, a ship about the same size as theirs - obviously another freighter of sorts - and what appeared to be a passenger transport, about the size of a Lambda-class shuttle. Once the lights had come back on after the blast gates had been shut, activity had resumed around the second freighter. After observing the goings-on for the few moments Morgan needed to go through the shut-down procedure of their vessel, a smile of cunning mingled with relief spread across Serina's features. She quickly wiped the expression from her face before the man beside her could notice it. With a little luck and a few of the gadgets in her room, she might be able to escape the impending doom called "Jedi" after all.

* * *

The cantina of the former mining station was fairly well-stocked for a mid-sized rebel base. Peer, the young man who had led them from the hangar to the command center and the adjoining storage area, had been ordered to take Serina and Cory to get some dinner while they were waiting for Morgan to finish his meeting with the base commander.

After several minutes of shallow small talk just to get acquainted, Serina decided to dig a little deeper. "So, what's your commander like?" she inquired around a mouthful of cheese-stuffed tubers. "Never seen anyone like him before."

"Yeah, he is something, isn't he?" Peer confirmed, bobbing his head up and down in excitement. "He's a Jedi, can you believe that? One of the old kind, fought in the Clone Wars, and one of the few who escaped the Emperor's henchmen. If you've got some time before you have to leave again, I'd love to tell you the whole story."

"Sure," Serina had to smile inwardly at the young man's enthusiasm as she favored him with an expression of eager curiosity. Even if part of his story would have to be discounted as idealistic exaggeration, it would still give her enough insight to aid her escape plans.

"Does sound interesting," Cory concurred, but with much less ardor than the young woman beside him. "So, he's a Jedi. Never met one before, but I still remember some stories about them from when I was little. Aren't they supposed to have all kind of powers? So, what can he do?"

"All kind of amazing things!" Peer's excitement grew another notch, if that was at all possible, as he launched into his tale. "His name is Rahm Kota, General Kota, to be exact, and he is not just a Jedi, but a Jedi Master. Now, from what I've heard, this was how he escaped Order 66…"

For the next half hour, Peer filled them in on the story of how the Jedi General had served in the Clone Wars, but had never trusted the clone troopers and had used his own militia instead, how this fact had spared him when Order 66 had gone out, how he had gone into hiding and how he had, in the past thirteen years, started to establish small rebel bases in the Outer Rim Territories, striking at Imperial targets in carefully planned raids, but staying hidden otherwise. Although some of the colorful exploits had to be grossly overstated, the gist of what he told them rang fairly true for Serina.

She still wasn't sure what to make of the Jedi's reaction after they had finished unloading the carts. Everything had played out just the way her vision had foreseen. She had prepared herself, burying all memories of her master deep beneath the occurrences of the past few months, wrapping the tightly controlled center of powerful emotions at the core of her being with several layers of what she perceived in those around her: enthusiasm for the rebel's cause, love for their fellow dissidents, sadness over friends and family lost to the Empire and righteous indignation over the many blatant injustices experienced in the years since the fall of the Old Republic. She had made those sensations her own just as she usually did with the feelings more conducive to the dark side, among them anger, hate, lust, and boastfulness. By the time, the former general had centered his gaze upon her, she had met his piercing eyes with as much of a guileless frame of mind as she had been able to muster. And after a few uncomfortable moments, his gaze had passed, he had ordered Peer to take her and Cory to the mess hall and had led Morgan for a private conversation into the command center.

Therefore, she was really not sure at all what to make of that reaction. Had he sensed her Force-sensitivity, her connection to the dark side? Had he realized that her presence was anything but chance? That, if she was allowed to depart, this base was going to be betrayed? For right now, her hands were tied. All she could do was to await the course of the coming events.

"…and that's how we all ended up in this former mining station." Peer finally concluded his narration of how Rahm Kota had established several bases - this specific one being the closest to the narrow band of the Inner Rim near _Antar_ \- while most of the other ones were supposedly located somewhere in the Outer Rim. Morgan had joined them halfway through the story and was just finishing off his Brogy stew.

"Whoa," Serina commented and turned toward their mission commander, "a Jedi General! I never expected to meet one of them. I thought they were all dead."

Morgan nodded thoughtfully. "I guess, he is the last one. Imposing figure, don't you think?"

"Definitely. So, what did he want? Do we have a new mission?"

The eager anticipation in the young woman's voice brought an amused smile to the older man's face. "We don't. We'll just return to _Alderaan_. But you might if you're up to the challenge." He pushed the chair away from the table and rose to his feet. "Come on, let's go see the General. He wants to talk to you in person about it."

* * *

"Alarm! Unknown vessel approaching! All hands to their stations!"

The booming announcement startled Serina out of her restless sleep. The flashing signal on the far wall of her quarters bathed the sparse furnishings with its gory red hue. She jumped to her feet, slipped quickly into the simple grey uniform she had been provided with several days prior and pulled on her black boots. Grabbing her belt and the small handheld blaster she hurried out into the hallway, quickly completing her outfit on the run.

Orwin, responsible for communications during the "day-shift" - a somewhat pointless designation since there was no difference between night and day inside the former mining facility -, was manning the main console, relegating her to the secondary unit at the back wall of the large operations center. As she slipped into her chair, Serina cast a quick glance at the main holodisplay in the middle of the room. It depicted an overview of the star system - an orange dot for the sun at the center, the current position of each of the planets and their trajectories in green, the asteroid belt in brown and the location of their base in blue - and a slowly blinking red dot at the far outskirts, slowly moving within a cone of projected flight path possibilities. It was already certain that it would pass the closer one of the outlying planets. The next few minutes would hopefully clarify its intentions. Was it just a stopover? Did the vessel have some kind of engine problems? Perhaps a smuggler or pirates? Or was it one of the many scout ships searching the vast expanse of the galaxy for rebel activities at the behest of the Emperor and his minions?

Moments later, the movement of the dot slowed down as it passed the third planet of the system, an unremarkable dead world, stripped of its atmosphere many thousands of years prior during whatever military conflict had also blown the second planet to pieces. Then it accelerated again and changed its trajectory. A low moan escaped the lips of several of the rebels as the new destination became obvious: it was heading toward the innermost planet and would pass above the asteroid belt only a few hundred thousand kilometers off their current location. That was, in galactic measures, within spitting distance of the base. Just one escaped emission and, regardless of what the crew of that ship was searching for, they would most certainly come knocking at their front door.

"All fighters in emergency lift-off mode! Prepare for total shut-down! Report on sensor jammers!" The orders were issued with a steady voice, but quick like shots. General Kota stood in the middle of the operations room - the calm eye in the center of a flurry of activities - and awaited the responses from all over the base.

The red dot had not covered even half of the distance to the asteroid belt when the lights went out all over the former mining facility. Dim emergency lights and the glow of the few still active displays shrouded the room around Serina in an eerie semi-darkness. Nobody spoke a word as they watched the dot move across the holodisplay. Limited to using passive sensors only, there was no way to acquire more detailed information about the approaching vessel, but at least they could follow its movements.

Time slowed to a mere trickle.

One million clicks, nine hundred thousand, eight hundred thousand, … four hundred thousand, three hundred thousand … everybody held their breath for the long seconds it took the vessel to pass over the asteroid belt, scanning the myriads of dead rocks in the process … two hundred eighty thousand, two hundred seventy-five thousand, two hundred eighty-five thousand … and exhaled again with a sigh of relief when the dot moved on without slowing down, dropping back to the orbital plane of the system on its approach to the innermost planet.

They followed the vessel's path as it slowed down upon approaching the lifeless globe and then moved on to the fourth planet currently on the far side of the system. Two hours later, the spook was gone, and the ship had disappeared into hyperspace. The lights came back on and everything returned to business as usual. The General dismissed all those not currently on regular duty.

Serina shut down the secondary communications station and rose to her feet. As she headed for the large blast doors, she caught, out of the corner of her eye, the gray-haired Jedi Master casting a thoughtful gaze in her direction. But before any worry, that her lack of relief at the development might have heightened his already existing suspicions of her true loyalties, could seize hold of her, he turned back to the central holodisplay and started requesting status reports from the most important stations all over the base.

* * *

Scanning incoming messages, decrypting them if necessary, encrypting outgoing messages, scanning for any chatter from passing vessels, welcoming their regular supply shuttle, dinners in the large common room, uneasy nights in the small quarters she shared with one of the few other females at the base: after a few days, it had turned into routine, even monotony, along with her efforts of blending in with the other rebels who stayed permanently at the former mining facility - although she could never shake the feeling, that they were hiding certain things from her -, and, above all, with her constant struggle to refrain from tapping into the Force. And she had to refrain from doing so, at all costs.

Another night on the hard bunk, wrapped tightly in her blanket in the coolness of the room - everything was still in an energy saving mode ever since the appearance of the scout ship - and, again, sleep would not come. It was hard, and, with each passing day, it didn't get any easier, as she had hoped, it got worse. It felt like being cut off, like having lost her eyesight or her ability to hear. Of course, she had refrained from using her natural abilities before, during her first year at the academy. But at that time, she had had a safety net for the case that she slipped up, the amulet Vader had given her. Now, she had nothing. If the Jedi would sense her using the Force … she didn't want to think about what might happen in that case. Again, her thoughts were starting to go around in circles. Had her message been so misleading? "Speedy extraction required, discovery imminent" - that was pretty plain, wasn't it? And he had to have gotten her message, also the short appendix "JI" for "Jedi involvement". Why else had he sent the scout ship? It could not have appeared by coincidence, could it?

Her plan had been simple: a miniature version of a probot, equipped with a strong burst transmitter and enough sensors to determine its location, attached to the departing supply shuttle, programmed to detach at the next stop in realspace, to wait for the vessel's departure and then to start transmitting toward the galactic center. The message was simple: just that sentence and the coordinates, encrypted in a code only her master would be able to break, and on the layer above it just his name, encrypted in a standard Imperial code. The power source of the droid would last several days, enough time for one of the outposts to pick up the transmission.

And yet, nearly two weeks had passed since the freighter had left. But, except for the scout ship, there was no sign at all that her message had reached its intended recipient. And she had no idea how much longer she would survive under the intense scrutiny of the Jedi General without betraying her true nature.

 _If I don't get some sleep, that will happen even sooner!_ she chided herself and forced the unwelcome thoughts from her mind, replacing them with a single memory, the one memory she cherished the most: the first time she had seen her master unmasked, right after the levy at the Emperor's palace. As she recalled to herself every little detail -every scar on his face, his eyes, his nose, his lips, the dimple on his chin, his ears, the paleness of his skin, how it had felt to her touch - her mind started to drift and, as deep longing filled her heart, she finally fell asleep…

…only to be rudely jerked awake again mere moments later by the same booming announcement as just a week prior, "Alarm! Unknown vessel approaching! All hands to their stations!" With a low moan, she jumped to her feet and pulled on her uniform and boots. What was it this time? Another scout ship? She disregarded that idea as quickly as it had popped into her mind. If they hadn't discovered anything the first time around, there wouldn't be a reason to come back. And if they had discovered the signal of her second probot, they might return, but certainly not alone.

The command center was bustling with activity when she stepped through the entrance and walked to her assigned station. But even without using the Force, she sensed a huge difference to the situation one week prior.

"Serina," Orwin called out to her, "come over here."

Quickly, the young woman complied. As she stepped up to the main communications station, Orwin rose from his seat and motioned her to take over. "I have other business to attend to," he explained and hurried toward the entrance. Together with him, several others of the "day-shift" left the room, their stations now in the charge of their secondary shift replacements. General Kota remained at his customary place, standing in the middle of the large room, watching the holodisplay at the center.

After confirming that no transmission had been received in the few moments that had passed since Orwin had relinquished the station, Serina cast a curious glance at the displays of the station to her left. But the active sensor range had been reduced to not alert the ship to their presence and passive sensors only revealed the vessel in a stationary orbit around the third planet. From what she could tell, it was a small vessel, only about twenty meters in length.

As more information became available, she suddenly felt a jolt run through her and she had to fight hard to not gasp in surprise: she knew that ship, knew it better than any other vessel in the galaxy. That was _her_ ship out there, her _StarLady_. No other yacht ever built had that specific configuration of length, wingspan, and engine signature. It was unusual that it even showed up on the sensors at all. Apparently, none of its cloaking mechanisms were engaged and, above that, its hull had to have been covered with a regular paint job to offset the effects of the reflec. Its presence was a message by itself, a message only Serina would be able to understand. Her master was near, or, at least, his troops.

"Any changes?" the General inquired. "What are they doing out there?"

The young man next to Serina shook his head. "No, Sir, no change at all. They are still in orbit around number three."

"Have you identified the vessel?"

"Yes, Sir, it's only a small yacht. From what I can tell, it appears to be a Baudo-class type but shorter than any I've ever seen."

"Humph." Silence settled over the command center as the Jedi Master pondered the situation. But not for long. "Miss Wanders, join me in the office. The rest of you, commence phase two of your instructions." With an inviting gesture, he directed the young woman toward a door set into the right wall, separating the main stations from the secondary ones. It led into a room about the size of her sleeping quarters. One wall was covered in displays. Across from it was a desk with a chair behind it. And apart from that: nothing else. Before she stepped through the door, she caught a glimpse of the others powering down their stations. Then she was in the office, the General right behind her, and the door slid shut.

Uncertain, what was expected of her, Serina just stood there, facing the desk. But Kota never bothered to sit down. Standing behind her just inside the office, blocking the only exit, he continued to scrutinize her in silence. After a long moment, the young woman turned to face him, her expression one of innocent cluelessness.

But the General was not fooled. "You know that ship, don't you?" he addressed her, carefully gauging her reaction.

Although Serina managed to keep a straight face, Kota was reading her like an open book. "Thought so," he added with a nod. "So, what will happen next? Will it be a small fleet or a larger one?"

"What are …," the young woman tried to interject with a shrug of her shoulders and a perplexed expression on her face. But Kota just cut off her objection with a stern movement of his hand.

"Who will be in command?" he inquired with additional steel in his voice. "Which one of the admirals are you reporting to?"

Did he notice the feeling of despite the question evoked in her? She averted her eyes to not give away more than she already had.

"Perhaps, not an admiral at all. A Moff or someone in the ISB?" After a moment, he corrected himself again, "No, it has to be somebody much more prominent than that. Hmm…," again, he glared at her intently. "One of the Inquisitors, perhaps," he added thoughtfully.

As his assumptions drew closer to the truth, a powerful coldness started to build within her, a mixture of fear and anger, of a resentfulness at his patronizing words and a desire to show him exactly, who her master was and what she had learned from him. At the same time, she knew she would never have an inkling of a chance against this Jedi Master, a leader of the Clone Wars, with more fighting experience than she would ever have a chance to acquire. Her hands balled into fists as she struggled to stay calm.

Another long moment passed in silence. Finally, Serina forced her hands to relax and lifted her head again, meeting his gaze straight on. Her self-imposed separation from the Force dissolved as she reached for the field of living energy surrounding her. With a sigh of relief, she felt it permeating her, granting her a strength she had missed during the two weeks that had passed since her arrival at the rebel base.

Kota watched the transformation in silence, his body-tension proof of his permanent readiness to draw his lightsaber if the need arose. But Serina had no intention to fight the older man. The instant her mind touched the Force and through it the multitude of living presences around her, she realized what the General had done his best to hide from her: he had ordered the evacuation of the base. The squadron of A-wings was ready to divert attention from the two transports ready to carry the whole complement of rebels from the asteroid to wherever they would be fleeing to along with as many valuable supplies as they could take along. And, if she was not mistaken, there were fewer people in those transports than had been at the base when she arrived. Many had apparently left during the week that had passed on board of the supply shuttles. And she had not even noticed! Even if the fleet arrived within the next few moments, they would not get a real chance to catch them. But, perhaps, she could at least delay the General's departure.

"Not one of the Inquisitors," she finally informed him, her back straight and her right hand resting lightly on the tool pouch that contained her lightsaber. "I report to a much higher power."

"Ah," Kota smiled, but it was far from a friendly expression, "Vader! He is your master, isn't he?"

Serina just tilted her head in silent confirmation, as a wave of hot desire coursed through her at the mention of the Sith Lord's name.

"And you think, he is coming to get you."

The young woman shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. "Not necessarily."

"We'll see," the General turned to the displays set in the left wall. At a motion of his hand, they came to life, depicting scenes from the base arrayed around a schematic of the space around them. A slowly blinking red dot represented the _StarLady_ , still in orbit around the third planet. In the main hangar, the last items were being loaded into the transports. In the starfighter hangar, the twelve A-wings sat waiting for their signal to launch into space. At the far end of the large cavern, Serina discovered a small transport, not much larger than the starfighters. It was still being serviced and a young man in a pilot's uniform was making last checkups on the vessel. This had to be the General's escape shuttle, Serina was certain.

As she was still pondering how she could prevent him from reaching that vessel without getting herself killed, alarms suddenly rang through the room. Plop, plop, plop. Three signals appeared simultaneously on the display, just outside of the mass-shadow of the asteroid belt. Within moments, they multiplied as smaller fighters were launched from the capital ships and headed straight for the location of the former mining facility.

"And this is where our paths part," Kota informed her dryly as he backed up to the door leading into the command center. "Please stay and enjoy the show. And," he added with a grim determination on his face, "tell your master, I look forward to meeting him one of these days. But on my time, not his!" The door behind him swooshed open and an instant later he was gone.

When Serina tried to follow him, the door would not budge, not that she had truly expected it to. With a sigh of resignation, she removed her lightsaber from the pouch and started cutting her way through the fortified metal.

* * *

"General Kota! Finally, after all these years," Vader rumbled beside her as the scenes from the short battle above the asteroid containing the former mining facility played out before them on the large viewscreen in his private quarters.

The A-Wings had engaged the two squadrons of TIEs from the leading star destroyer, allowing the two transport vessels to head away from the capital ships toward the sun, leaving the planetary plane of the system in an angle of 45 degrees on opposite vectors. By the time, the smaller Victory-class Star Destroyers had taken up the pursuit, both transports had reached their hyperspace entry points and disappeared. Shortly after, the surviving A-Wings had disengaged and followed suit, leaving the rebel base undefended.

By the time, the first Imperial landing craft had entered the main hangar bay, detonations had started to rip through the asteroid and large portions of the caverns and several tunnels had collapsed. The last scenes showed a group of stormtroopers attempting to clear a passage to the command center when they were suddenly ordered to withdraw. Their last transmission reported them in the process of boarding their transport, then the signal was lost. Then, observed from the leading star destroyer, the asteroid blew apart in a major explosion.

"How did you escape?" Serina could sense an unusual curiosity in her master's voice.

"I guess, Kota wanted me to. He had ordered everything shut down, except for the communications station. When I had cut my way out of his office, I sent a signal to the _StarLady_. Then I followed the General to the fighter hangar. But it was too late. I caught a last glance at his transport, then he was gone. Caaroq arrived a few moments later. I could feel the first explosions before I got onboard. Right after we left, I tried to reach Admiral Neras. It took some convincing until he finally gave the order to withdraw. But by then, it was too late already."

"Kota escaped unnoticed?"

"I checked all the recordings. There was no sign of his transport anywhere. Admiral Neras assumed that he had slipped past us when the asteroid blew and damaged our sensors. And the two other ships were still out of range when that happened."

"You disagreed?" Obviously, he had also had his doubts regarding this assumption. At least, from what Serina had heard, Neras had not survived his report about this operation to his supreme commander.

"Yes, master, but the admiral would not listen to my reasoning. He ordered the TIEs to return to his ship and, about half an hour later, his taskforce departed. I stayed another day, but I couldn't sense Kota's presence anywhere nearby either. But he is a Jedi Master. I am sure, he can hide his presence in the Force. He might have just gone into hiding among those asteroids and stayed there until I finally left." It had taken her more than a day to return to _Imperial Center_ , where she had waited for Vader's return to report to him the results of her own mission.

Vader concurred. "Be that as it may, one thing is certain: he will continue with what he started. And we will find him, sooner or later. He will not avoid me, at least not for long."

"That might not be his goal, master." Serina had not forgotten the general's last words to her. "He gave me a message for you: he will meet you, but on his time, not yours."

Vader was not impressed. "We'll see about that."

 _I guess we will_ , Serina thought to herself. There was only one thing she was absolutely certain about: she had no interest in ever facing Rahm Kota again. And she got an uneasy feeling that it might be better for her master if he never did either.


	9. Rise High, Fall Deep

**Rise High, Fall Deep**

(3 BBY)

When the transfer shuttle settled down in the hangar bay of the _Stealth_ , an Imperial-class Star Destroyer of the second generation, Serina shouldered her duffel bag and got ready to disembark together with several other officers. They were greeted at the foot of the exit ramp by a lieutenant and two non-coms and taken to their quarters.

An hour later, she reported to the briefing room located just one deck below the bridge. Two of the other officers from the shuttle had arrived ahead of her and she acknowledged them with a quick nod as she joined them at the far side of the room. Just a few moments later, two more young men arrived. None of them spoke a word as they waited for the ship's commander. They did not have to wait long.

Fleet Admiral Brask Porish entered the room with three of his officers in tow. He met Serina's expectations, gathered during a diligent study of his records, quite well. After graduating from _Prefsbelt_ about eleven years ago, his first few assignments had been quite uneventful. Then, about seven years prior, he had started a swift climb up the ladder to his current position. Having turned thirty-three just a few months back and otherwise quite handsome, his face reflected the ruthlessness he had employed during that time to achieve his goals. About a year prior, already an admiral in rank despite his youth and newly assigned to the _Stealth_ , he had managed to eliminate two smuggling operations in the _Lambda Sector_ within a few weeks of taking command. Several crackdowns on local dissidents in the months that had followed as well as the successful destruction of a major rebel base not too long ago had earned him high praise from Par Lankin, the Moff of the sector, and a quick promotion to Fleet Admiral only a few days later.

The introductions were quickly made with nobody bothering to sit down. "Welcome on board. I am Fleet Admiral Porish. Senior Captain Marush, head of weapons. Senior Commander Relap in charge of TIE deployment. Senior Commander Daril, head of communications." Each of the men favored the new arrivals with a curt nod as the admiral called upon them.

Then Porish turned to the small group at the other side of the room.

"Senior Commander Larsk and Junior Commander Stanik," two of the young men stepped forward, "you have been assigned to Senior Captain Marush." They walked over to join their new superior.

"Junior Commander Kirosh and Senior Lieutenant Loban, Senior Commander Relap will introduce you to your new units." As the other two officers made their way toward the far side of the room, Serina was left standing alone at the front.

At last, the admiral addressed her directly, "Senior Commander Wills, you will be replacing Senior Commander Daril as head of communications. He will be leaving in twenty-four hours to report to his new duty station, so use the time well to get acquainted with the department." As she walked over to the fair haired young man, about two years her elder, Parish's gaze lingered on the young woman just a moment too long to escape her notice. Then he addressed the new arrivals a final time before dismissing them. "All of you have received high recommendations from your previous commanders. Otherwise, I would not have selected you for your new assignments. I expect you to give your best during your stay on the _Stealth_. Do not disappoint me." Then he was gone.

As Serina followed Senior Commander Daril toward his office, she had to think of the reputation the young Fleet Admiral had acquired in the past years. Although ruthless in achieving his goals and quick to mete out punishment to those who failed his expectations, he had also become known for his habit of cultivating a close and cordial relationship with a select group of his field-grade officers. And he had developed a good report not only with Moff Lankin, but with the other admirals in the _Lambda Sector_ as well.

And yet, since his recent promotion to Fleet Admiral, his luck had turned. When the _Stealth_ had followed up on a lead to the location of some rebel sympathizers, they had arrived to find the hide-out deserted, vacated apparently only mere hours ahead of their raid. At first, Porish had considered it an unfortunate coincidence. But when they had arrived at the next location about two weeks later and had repeated the experience, he had the matter investigated more diligently. And his suspicion had quickly been proven to be well-founded: the dissidents had received a warning about the same time the _Stealth_ had been ordered to investigate. There had to be a mole somewhere, either on his ship or at the command center on _Rintonne._ And yet, locating the rebel spy was not the reason for her new assignment. Of course, she would keep her eyes and ears open and if she discovered a likely candidate, she would not hesitate to strike hard and fast, but her priorities lay elsewhere.

* * *

"We just received orders to relocate to the _Retep_ system. Senior Commander Mors, I require any information available about the planets and the population there, smuggling activities in the past five years and any sightings of rebels during that time in the system or close by. Senior Captain Nerias, prepare the deployment of our ground troops to the location mentioned in the orders and coordinate with Senior Commander Relap. And Senior Commander Wills," he favored Serina with a dark smile, "this time, the rebels will not get a warning, at least not from anybody on the _Stealth_. I hold you accountable that no transmission leaves the ship until we have been successful in this matter." With a curt nod, he dismissed the officers to attend to their assigned tasks.

Serina had used the four days since her arrival to evaluate her subordinates, to familiarize herself with their weaknesses and strengths and to have the ship's communications systems thoroughly checked for any actual or potential flaws. After she had ordered the implementation of a total shut-down of outgoing communications for the hours until their arrival above _Retep V_ , she felt compelled to inform Porish about several possibilities open to any potential spy that she had absolutely no control over.

"There should be no trash dumping before we arrive at our destination, Sir," she informed the admiral who had been surprised at her request for a private conversation. "It could be used to deposit a message for pickup after we have departed. And Senior Commander Relap will have to ensure that none of the TIE fighters and bombers can be manipulated to transmit a message upon our arrival at the destination. The systems on the bridge are not capable of controlling that kind of communication and employing the jammers would limit our own sensors as well. The same goes for any of the shuttles and other vessels on board."

Porish had thanked her for her advice and she had been dismissed to return to her duty station. So far, although - from what she had heard - her predecessor had been part of the "inner circle", as the group of field-grade officers with a close relationship to the admiral had been dubbed, she had not been invited to any of their meetings. But she had sensed a growing respect in the slightly older man. And something else that might come in handy if she played her cards just right.

* * *

A few hours later, Serina had gotten a first glimpse at a more unpleasant side of her commanding officer. Although no communication had left the ship, no trash had been dumped and all on board vessels had maintained absolute silence until the TIEs had been deployed to guard the advance of the ground troops, the small rebel base located at the foot of a mountain range close to the capital of _Retep V_ had been just as deserted as the last two locations. Apparently, they had been forewarned even before the _Stealth_ had ever entered hyperspace. It had left her with only one explanation since the shut-down had gone into effect right after the briefing with Porish: somebody had managed to intercept the orders directly upon arrival and had not hesitated to pass the information along to the rebels. Unless, of course, the leak was at the command center on _Rintonne_ and not on the ship at all.

But when she had informed the admiral of her conclusions during the briefing that had followed the futile operation, he had yelled at her and even thrown a datapad after her. And yet she had gotten away comparatively unscathed in comparison to the Senior Commander in charge of the ground troops. When he had to inform Porish, that a thorough search of the population of the nearby capital had not yielded any traces of the escaped dissidents, the admiral had shot him in front of his assembled troops for incompetence.

The experience had reminded Serina of her own dark master. Apparently, the young Fleet Admiral was striving to emulate some of the most ruthless commanders in the Imperial Navy, foremost Lord Vader himself. But in her eyes, this was most inappropriate for the man, considering the true reason for her current assignment...

 _The jaws of the large hyperbaric chamber in Vader's private rooms had just closed and the air inside was adjusting swiftly to the required pressure. The mechanical arms above the meditation chair lowered and moments later the helmet and mask were lifted off the pale skinned, bare and scarred head of her dark master. At a motion of his hand, the large viewscreen built into the inside surface came to life and the portrait of a young admiral in his early to mid-thirties appeared._

 _"Fleet Admiral Brask Porish," Vader's weak voice, so totally unlike his usual harsh, mechanically enhanced bass, reflected the loathing annoyance Serina felt in him as he studied the young man's features. He had just returned from a meeting with the Emperor and some naval officers from the_ Mid Rim _. Patiently, Serina waited for further information._

 _"He hates me." The young woman raised an eyebrow at the statement. After all, many of the admirals and even some of the Moffs, who had had their dealings with the Emperor's right hand, feared him and fear often enough bred hate. Although she had not spoken her thoughts out loud, her master was well aware of them. "It's not born of fear," he corrected her. "We never met before. He is quite self-confident and enough of a fool to show his loathing of my person openly."_

 _Again, he paused and glanced through the records of the young admiral with Serina reading along over his right shoulder. In the past year, he had managed to strike several blows against rebel outposts and had been successful in eliminating several smuggling operations in the_ Lambda Sector _. Nothing in his records hinted at a reason for the kind of hate Vader had sensed in the young man during his meeting with the Emperor, Moff Lankin and several of his admirals. With an indignant gesture, the Dark Lord deactivated the display and swiveled his chair to face his young apprentice. "He has some potential, but I need to find out the reason for his hate. I have no use for another Rancit or the likes. Have yourself assigned to his ship, the_ Stealth _, and report to me as soon as you discover his problem."_

 _For a long moment, he scrutinized her thoughtfully. Then he added, "They also have a problem with some spy either on the ship or on_ Rintonne _. But I am sure the Emperor will send somebody to address that issue himself. Your main target is Porish. If you happen upon the spy: eliminate him. But only if it will not blow your cover with the admiral." Serina nodded in confirmation. If the naval officer posed any danger or even just a nuisance to her dark master, she would uncover it. It was exactly the kind of task she had been trained for._

 _Her mind was already busy devising the actions required to accomplish the task set before her when Vader seized her by the waist and pulled her into his lap. As sensual desires relegated all other thoughts to mere pettiness, she reached for the fairly unblemished portion of her master's face. Although only a pale imitation of their times at the EmPal SuRecon or Bast Castle, it would have to do for the moment. Perhaps there would be more time once her mission was completed._

...the necessary arrangements had been quickly put into action. Creating a false identity as Senior Commander Serai Wills and supplying it with interesting and auspicious records had hardly been a challenge. Finding a new assignment for Senior Commander Daril along with a much-deserved promotion had proved a little bit more difficult. When she had finally presented herself as the sole option for an on-time replacement, Admiral Porish had not really had a choice in the matter even if he had claimed otherwise.

With the first week reserved for getting acquainted with her department, meeting and evaluating the other officers of the command crew and collecting some general information about the admiral, the time had come to take their relationship to the next level. She was currently the only woman with enough rank and an eligible position to become part of his inner circle. And if she had interpreted correctly some of the glances he had cast her way in the past days, other circumstances might also arise to allow her to press ahead with her assigned task.

* * *

"We will be returning to _Rintonne_ tomorrow. Governor Tount will be hosting a reception on the day after and I am invited with selected officers from my command crew." Porish favored the young woman in front of his desk with a generous smile. "Senior Commander Wills, I have chosen you to accompany me as my personal escort. Moff Lankin and several of the captains of the other ships in my fleet will attend as well. You will certainly know to appreciate my offer and how conducive this kind of event can be for your naval career. Now, the considerable improvements in the efficiency of your department within such a short time certainly recommend you. But there is more required for advancement than just capabilities. Use the reception well to convince me that you would be a suitable addition to my inner circle."

Though he did not expound further on what he expected of her, his hint was plain enough. Serina felt cold anger rise in her soul at his words, an emotion quickly amplified by the lechery she could sense behind his fake benign smile. But she carefully reigned in her resentment and adopted an eager expression as she inquired about the appropriate dress code and the time for the event. As much as she detested the admiral's kind of attitude toward women, she knew only too well how to exploit them for her own purposes.

* * *

The capital of _Rintonne_ could in no wise be compared at all to _Imperial City._ And yet, despite its otherwise backwaterish appearance, Serina was pleasantly surprised at discovering some stores with an acceptable selection of adequate dresses for the upcoming event. She had been on the first shuttle scheduled to take several of the higher-ranking officers down to the planet for shore leave - a privilege not granted to very many after the events on _Retep V_ \- and it did not take long to locate just the right outfit for the following day.

There was only one major hotel located in close proximity to the governor's residence. The admiral had advised her to take a room there along with most of the other officers spending the night planetside. After a lavish dinner, she joined several of the command crew from the _Stealth_ for a few drinks at the hotel bar. As they settled down at one of the largest tables in the dimly lit room, Serina let her gaze wander across the well-frequented location. The typical Imperial bigotry against Non-huMans became evident immediately. She was probably the only female officer in the whole bunch.

After the waiterdroid had supplied Serina's group with the ordered drinks, several young provocatively dressed girls entered the room and were welcomed with wolfish hoots and raunchy comments. They spread out quickly and were soon found sitting on somebody's lap or sharing a drink with one or more of the men at the bar. Among them, Serina noticed a young redhead, at the most fifteen or sixteen years of age. Although she was dressed just like all the others, there was something about the girl that drew her gaze inadvertently. For long moments, she watched her drift from one group of officers to the next, always exchanging a few words, sharing a joke or two and then moving on. As she got close to Serina's table, she suddenly lifted her head. Their eyes locked and, for an instant, a weird familiarity passed between the two young women. Then the redhead broke the contact and turned away from their table. Serina continued to follow her with her eyes as the girl weaved her way through the various groups blocking her path. Moments later she was gone.

Serina excused herself from the others at her table and headed into the large reception hall outside of the bar. Only one of the human receptionists was on duty at this late hour, but her helpfulness was rather limited, "That was probably one of the dancers. Governor Tount always hires a whole assemblage of them for his reception."

If that was true, then she might meet her again the following afternoon. And if she did, she would find out who and what the girl was. She would not let her off the hook that easily a second time.

* * *

It took Admiral Porish a discernable amount of time to recognize the young commander as she left the shuttle from the hotel to the governor's residence together with several others of his command crew. The dark burgundy dress emphasized her slender, yet well proportionate figure, but not in an indecent way. With the medium high-heeled shoes she nearly had his height and with the long-haired wig, pinned up in the fashion currently favored at the Emperor's court, nobody would have taken her for an officer of the Imperial Navy. Just, as he had advised her: a suitable escort for a distinguished Fleet Admiral.

It was still early in the afternoon and for the next few hours, appetizers and tall, flute-shaped glasses with pearly _Alderaanian_ wine were served as more guests arrived and introductions were made. When _Rintonne's_ sun slowly disappeared behind the western horizon, the start of the entertainment program drew everybody's attention from the front yard and the lobby to the large assembly hall with the stage at one side and the buffet set up across from it.

Two more hours and several performances later, the entertainment program and the official speeches finally came to an end. The dancers started to mingle with the invited guests as everybody got their plates filled and settled down at the quickly arranged tables. While endeavoring to pay just enough attention to Porish to satisfy whatever claims he believed to have on her, Serina scanned the crowd around her unobtrusively for the young redhead she had noticed the night before. Although she could sense her strangely familiar presence within the facility, she had not been able to spot her yet, neither during the performances nor afterward.

When the Fleet Admiral excused himself and left the table for a private conversation with Moff Lankin, Serina got up as well and headed for the dessert buffet. Again, she scanned the various groups - some still enjoying their dinner while others were already standing around the bar tables at the far end of the room where the doors to the large back porch had been opened - when she noticed a slender blond-haired girl talking to one of her fellow officers from the _Stealth_. A few moments later, she moved toward the next group and started a conversation with an older man whom Serina quickly identified as Senior Captain Marush. A quick scrutiny through the Force confirmed her hunch: she had found the redhead from the night before.

Seemingly completely engrossed in the proper selection of her dessert, she continued to watch the girl out of the corner of her eye. Quickly a pattern emerged. All the conversations were relatively short and all the men had one thing in common: they were members of Fleet Admiral Porish's command crew. Did the redhead realize that Serina was part of that group as well? Did she even recognize the female officer from the night before in the totally unusual attire? If she had and if the pattern proved true, she would have to be one of the next persons on the young woman's list. But she could try to force her hand.

When the redhead's conversation with Senior Captain Nerias was drawing to a close, Serina deposited her plate with the barely touched Pyollian cake on a nearby table and walked past them toward the refresher rooms next to the entrance. In passing, she acknowledged Nerias with a friendly nod of her head but ignored his counterpart altogether. When moments later she heard the clacking of high heels on the granite floor behind her, she allowed herself a satisfied smile.

The refresher area was lavishly decorated with bouquets of large blossoms ranging in color from dark reds to stark yellows to brighten the otherwise fanciless and functional gray interior. Two of the other dancers were just touching up their makeup and cracking jokes about some of the officers they had been hired to entertain. Their conversation died mid-sentence when Serina entered the room and, within a few heartbeats, they left bumping into the redhead in their hurried rush back into the assembly hall.

For long moments, the two women gazed intently at each other. Then Serina favored the girl with a cocked eyebrow and an ironic smile. "I guess I'm the next one on your list." At first, her counterpart attempted to look confused by the strange statement, but she gave up the pretense quickly when Serina added, "Now, what kind of assignment do you have that requires a personal contact with each officer of the _Stealth's_ command crew?"

With amazement, she watched the change in the girl's demeanor. Pulling herself up to her full height - though shorter in stature she was nearly at eye level with her somewhat older counterpart due to her high heels -, her expression hardened visibly. Beforehand, she had appeared more mature than her physical age, now she exuded an aura of menace, noticeable less by the way she looked than by her presence in the Force. And yet, Serina was absolutely certain that the threat, this girl posed, was not directed at her personally.

"My name is Arica Pradeux. And my assignment is quickly explained: I will find the traitor who has thwarted the last few strikes against rebel sites. You are Senior Commander Serai Wills," Serina nodded in acknowledgment, "and you just transferred to the _Stealth_ a few weeks ago to take on the position as head of communications." Again, a confirming nod from the slightly older woman. "You are not on my list of potential suspects, but I will require your assistance. I am sure you know this code: Hapspir, Barrini, Corbolan, Triaxis."

Of course, Serina knew this code and she knew it only too well. After all, in her past years as Vader's agent, she had been forced to invoke it a few times herself. This young redhead was an undercover Imperial agent in direct service to the Emperor or one of the men of Palpatine's most inner circle. Had not her master told her that the Emperor would send somebody to take care of the spy? Evidently, she had just become acquainted with that somebody.

"Of course! It will be my pleasure to assist you in any way possible. What do you require?" On the one hand, there really was no other option than to comply with the request, but on the other hand, it might provide enough opportunities to find out more about the redhead along the way. For a moment she wondered: did Vader know about this young, force-sensitive girl, most likely working directly for the Emperor? Perhaps not. Secretiveness was quite typical of the Sith. And if that was the case, he would certainly be more than eager to receive a report about another apprentice of his own dark master.

* * *

Several hours later, the Fleet Admiral finally excused himself to retire to his quarters in the residence while Serina returned to the hotel together with the last group of her fellow officers. It was already past midnight and she wanted to be on the first shuttle returning to the _Stealth_ the next morning. Therefore, she declined the invitation of the others to have some more drinks at the hotel bar and retired to her room.

The moment the door slid aside and the glow panels turned on to bathe the mid-sized room in their warm dim light, Serina knew that she was not alone. She stepped inside and waited for the door to slip shut behind her. Then she reached into her small purse and grabbed the metallic handle hidden underneath a selection of typical womanly products.

The armchair at the far end of the room facing the lights from the governor's residence visible in the distance through the window swiveled around to reveal a young redhead in a crisp naval uniform. The insignia identified her as a Junior Lieutenant, although her age belied that rank altogether.

"I hope you don't mind me staying here until the morning." Obviously, this was not a request and Serina was not really given a choice in the matter. Slowly, she relinquished her grip on her weapon and pulled her hand back out of the purse. "No, why should I?" But the ironic inflection was totally lost on the young girl.

A few minutes later, Serina had peeled out of her dress, had removed the rest of her accessories, and taken off the makeup. After donning the tight-fitting body glove she usually wore underneath her officer's uniform, she slipped into her bed. She had noticed the girl's curious gaze at her choice of undergarment, but she had not been in the mood for further conversation. Without another word, she pressed the appropriate button on the panel beside her bed and allowed darkness to descend upon them. Although she did not consider the redhead to pose a danger to her, sleeping in her presence did not appear to be the wisest course of action either. So Serina used the few remaining hours of the night for an invigorating meditation. At least this way there would be no danger of her subconscious revealing to the girl more than she already knew.

* * *

Bringing the young girl onboard the Star Destroyer had not posed a problem at all, just as Serina had expected. As the Imperial agent, Arica had claimed to be, her code cylinder certainly contained the proper security clearance to grant her access to most areas of the _Stealth._ After a quick trip to her quarters, she led the redhead into her office.

"So, how do you propose to tackle our problem?" Of course, she had already concocted a plan of her own, but she was curious what Arica would suggest.

"We need to limit the suspects to those who sent out transmissions on all three occasions."

Serina nodded in consent. "The time frame would be from the moment the order came in until the jump into hyperspace or, in the last case, until the moment of the total communications shut-down." She quickly entered the parameters into her terminal and together they waited for the results. The computer produced a list with approximately twenty names on it. Had it not been for the shut-down during the latest action, the listing would have certainly been much longer.

After she had transferred the names to one of her datapads, she established a connection with a high-security clearance to the ship's main databank. Once she had called up the records of the personnel in question, she handed the pad to Arica. "If you check the records for the most likely candidates, I'll see if I can find anything in the transmissions."

For a long time, neither of them spoke a word. Every now and then, a call from the bridge would require Serina's attention, but with the _Stealth_ still in orbit above _Rintonne_ , most issues could be handled by her second-in-command, a young Senior Lieutenant by the name of Dolms. When they headed for the nearest mess hall a few hours later, the redhead had managed to eliminate about three-fourth of the names. The transmissions were still stubbornly refusing to reveal any connection to the locations of the rebel bases, but Serina was not about to give up quite yet. Some idea for a new approach to that problem was lurking at the edges of her perception, but she just could not grab it quite yet.

They arrived a good hour before the regular lunch break started and the mess hall was still fairly empty. As they stood in front of the serving counter and scanned the offered dishes, one of the items caught Serina's attention. _Retepian Marschhog_. Apparently, the supply officer had used their short stay at the relatively unknown little planet to secure some unusual stocks.

Suddenly, realization hit her as hard as the strikes of her master's lightsaber. _Marschhog_! Unceremoniously, she dropped her tray onto the counter, grabbed Arica's arm and pulled her along as she stormed from the mess hall. "I know how he got the info out. We got him."

* * *

An hour later, Serina watched from a corner of the main hangar bay, as the young redhead boarded the supply shuttle scheduled to leave for _Rintonne_ within the next quarter-hour. It would probably take several hours before anybody discovered the body of Colonel Vosk. But she was just about to shorten that time. As soon as the vessel with Arica on board had slipped past the magnetic shields, Serina headed back toward the bridge.

"Fleet Admiral Porish?" she approached her commanding officer, "May I have a word with you in private? It's regarding our "security problem"."

For a short moment, the Fleet Admiral gave her a scrutinizing look. Then he motioned her to follow him to his office adjacent to the bridge.

"I hope you are not wasting my time, Senior Commander Wills," he barked at her as he settled into the chair behind his desk.

"I am not, Sir." Serina was not about to be intimidated by his harsh demeanor. "I have discovered how the information was transmitted to the rebels."

Porish cocked a quizzical eyebrow at her. "Then you know who the traitor is?"

Serina inclined her head in acknowledgment. "I certainly do, Sir."

"Very well, show me."

Some long minutes later, he had to recognize the validity of her findings. The pattern was just too obvious. The information had not even been hidden in some heavily encrypted code but in plain sight. On each occasion, just moments after the orders had arrived from _Rintonne_ , an order for choice meats and fruits for the officer's mess hall had been sent out by Colonel Vosk, head of procurement. These specialty orders were the only ones he issued personally. All other supply requests were taken care of by his staff. The orders included, among several regular and some more unusual items, a unique product from the planet that had just become their newest target. Only the product itself was named and it was always the fifth item on the list.

"I have also checked the Colonel's records," Serina continued with her deliberations. "His family lives on _Chandrila_ , but he had a younger brother who also joined the Imperial Navy a few years after him. About six months ago, that brother was executed for refusing to follow an order of wiping out a small village of dissidents." She paused for a moment. "I would guess that his betrayal is his way of taking revenge for the loss of his brother."

Porish concurred. Then he pressed a button on the terminal built into his large desk. "Lieutenant Meder, have Colonel Vosk report to my office immediately." He opened a drawer in his desk, removed a small blaster and slipped it into one of his pockets.

When the man had not shown up several minutes later, the admiral contacted Meder a second time, "Lieutenant, I am still waiting on Colonel Vosk." His voice had taken on a dangerous undertone.

"Sir," the adjutant hurried to inform him, "the Colonel did not respond to my call, so I sent out a security detail to locate him. They should report back shortly."

Another minute passed. Then Meder stepped through the door. "Sir, they just found him in his office. But you should have a look for yourself."

Serina followed Porish to the colonel's workplace several decks below the bridge. Two stormtroopers guarded the entrance. As they approached, the door slid aside and revealed a sight close to what Serina had expected. Several items that had once cluttered the desk in the middle of the room now littered the floor in front of their feet. The chair had landed on its side in one corner, obviously overturned in the man's attempt to escape his attacker. Vosk himself, a heavy-set man in his late thirties, lay sprawled across his desk. His dead eyes gazed up at the ceiling, bloodshot and still displaying whatever surprise and anguish he had experienced in his last moments. A deep cauterized gash started at his left shoulder and cut across his torso toward his hip. His right hand was missing. The stump of his arm bled only lightly, obviously seared by the same weapon that had killed him. As Serina searched the rest of the room with her eyes she discovered the cut-off limb still attached to a small blaster lying in the rear left corner.

On the wall behind the desk, several displays were still active, showing selected reports about the ship's stocks. The central one, however, was displaying a picture of the colonel, apparently recorded only moments before his demise. A small symbol in the bottom right corner indicated a message that offered to be replayed. Porish had noticed the recording as well and, once the troopers had removed Vosk's body from the desk, he pressed a button on the terminal to start it.

"State your name and confess, traitor." The voice of somebody invisible, yet clearly female, commanded harshly. Then the colonel started with a defiant expression on his face. "I am Colonel Liak Vosk. And I am proud to have had a chance to warn some of my fellow freedom fighters and preserve their lives to continue the fight against the wickedness and injustice this once glorious Empire has fallen prey to. The unwarranted murder of my brother, a man with honor and principles, a loyal son of _Chandrila_ , a faithful officer in our Naval Forces, is proof enough of this downfall. If I die today, I..."

Apparently, he had wanted to continue but was cut short by a harsh command from beyond the range of the recording unit. "Enough, traitor. In the name of the Emperor, you have been found guilty of high treason and are herewith sentenced to death." A crackling hiss could be heard; then the colonel disappeared as he jumped to his feet. A flurry of activity erupted just on the outskirts of the recording. Suddenly, a magenta beam of plasma cut through the picture. With a surprised outcry, the heavy body of the colonel slammed down on top of the desk and buried the built-in camera underneath.

After the recording had ended, Porish gazed a few more moments at the frozen picture of the dead man, obviously contemplating the situation. Then he turned to the young woman behind him. "Apparently, you were not the only one to discover Vosk's treason. There seems to be an undercover agent of the Emperor on board. Do you know anything about her?"

Before heading for Vosk's office, they had taken great pains to eliminate any recordings of Arica's presence onboard. Then the redhead had ordered Serina to not reveal her identity to anyone, not even to the Fleet Admiral. Although the young girl's attempt at using the Force to ensure her compliance had utterly failed, she was not about to disobey that particular order. "No, Sir," she met the probing stare of his gray eyes unflinchingly, "but I am glad to see that my theory proved itself true."

"Quite true indeed," he acknowledged as he turned away from her and strode from the room.

* * *

"Quite impressive!" Porish looked up from the reports displayed on his screen and gazed at her with a thoughtful expression on his face.

Serina had not allowed herself to relax from her position of attention until ordered to. Had she managed to impress the Fleet Admiral enough to finally be included in his inner circle? Since identifying the traitor had apparently not been sufficient to prove her value to him, she could only hope that the fifteen percent efficiency improvement of her department would.

"You are certainly aware, that your predecessor was part of my inner circle. He was quite capable as well, but I have to admit, you definitely have the edge on him. I'm usually not fond of having women in positions of leadership." This was nothing new to Serina and she was not surprised at all when he continued with a derogatory tone of voice, "Most of them are weak and much too emotional for that kind of responsibility. But," he paused for greater emphasis and favored her with an appraising look, "from what I've seen so far, that doesn't apply to you." Again, he gazed at her for long moments, allowing the silence to drag on into uncomfortableness.

Then he switched off his display and rose to his feet. "Meet me at the officer's lounge at 1800. I will introduce you to the rest of the circle." Before she could even confirm his order with more than a quick nod of her head, he had already walked past her and exited his office in the direction of the bridge.

* * *

Porish pushed his empty plate toward the middle of the table and leaned back into his chair, twirling his glass of Andoan ale between his slender fingers. "So, when did Admiral Arlas become aware of your ambitions?"

"Like I told you, he was the son of my great-aunt, Landa. When I was fifteen, we had a great family get-together and aunt Landa wanted to attend it. But she was already up in her seventies..." Serina continued to spin more details into her fictitious life story, from a family relationship to a quite non-fictitious, but now dead Fleet Admiral, who had supposedly helped her into the academy at _Prefsbelt_ , to various assignments on ships of which some no longer existed either. And yet, her fake identity included one pivotal point of her true life: the death of her parents that resulted in her being raised by relatives. An issue, the admiral would be able to relate to easily, since it corresponded with his own life's story.

In the short time since being introduced into his inner circle, Serina had managed to draw much closer to the slightly older man than she had expected. And most of that development had not even been due to her use of the Force. What had quickened the process notably was that he obviously felt a strong attraction to her. Allowing him to draw further parallels between his own life story and hers would hopefully grant her the insight she needed to accomplish her mission.

"Well, at least you did have the benefit of living relatives when your parents died," Porish finally returned to the starting point of their conversation. "It's much harder to cope with that kind of loss when you are all on your own in such a situation."

Serina gave him a quizzical look. "I guess that's quite true indeed. You sound like you are talking from experience. Did somebody close to you have to face something of that sort?"

For a moment, the man across from her hesitated. She could clearly sense a deeply rooted bitterness that washed over him as he thought back to his own youth. From his records, she knew that he had grown up as the son of a single mother and then he had lost her at the age of twelve. There had been no close relatives to take him in and somebody, whose name had been carefully kept off the records, had paid for his stay at one of the private military prep schools on _Corulag_. Later he had attended the academy there and started his military career. And yet, none of those events provided her with a clue why he should hate her master the way he apparently did. A little nudge through the Force overcame his obvious reluctance to reveal to her his story.

"I don't want to bore you with the details, but I did experience exactly that type of situation when I grew up. My mother was only a brief romance for my father, far below his social class. He left her before I was even born. And then, twelve years later, she died and he didn't even bother to acknowledge me as his son at that time, although he didn't live that far away from us. At least, he paid my way through military prep school and the academy. I only met him twice in all those years."

For a moment, he paused as his mind replayed those two occurrences, clearly cherished and detested at the same time. "I always wanted to impress him with my achievements, always hoped he would one day acknowledge openly that he was my father, but that was not to be." Now his voice blatantly reflected the bitterness she had already sensed before. "Before I really had a chance to prove myself worthy of being his son, he died during a raid on his homestead." An edge of fierce anger mingled with the bitterness. But again, he hesitated, his reluctance to indulge further into the subject palpable. "So, what became of your uncle? Did you ever get to meet him again after the academy?"

Now it was Serina's turn to exhibit an appropriate amount of anger and bitterness. "No, hardly." She gave an angry snort. "From what I heard, during some campaign in the Outer Rim, he had a disagreement with the one in charge and did not survive it."

"What happened to him? Did he get shot?" Porish looked at her incredulously and yet intrigued at the same time.

"Not from what I heard." She leaned forward and added in a conspiratorial whisper, "He suffocated; without anyone touching him."

"Vader," Porish spat out the name, his tone hushed as well, but filled with sovereign contempt. "The scourge of our navy!" he muttered under his breath, his hate for the Dark Lord in no way inferior to her master's own hate for the Jedi.

But before she could pursue the subject any further, the admiral cast a quick glance at his chronometer and rose to his feet. "The circle will meet at 2000. I'll see you there." Then he strode from the lounge without giving Serina a chance to respond.

For a long time, the young woman remained in her seat and recapitulated the conversation in search of any clue she might have missed, any new information that would help her pin down the source of his hate for the Sith Lord. Suddenly, she jumped to her feet and stormed from the officer's common room in the direction of her office. There had been one little tidbit of information she had almost missed. And it might just be the key to unlock the whole mystery.

* * *

"So quiet tonight?" Porish favored the young woman across from him with a questioning look. "After all, had it not been for that agent from the Emperor, you would have been credited with having discovered the identity of our spy. And with that mole gone, we will wipe out the rebellious elements in our sector in no time. Now, without the accomplishments of the Imperial Navy, where would the Empire be today?"

The other officers of the inner circle nodded in agreement. Serina conceded, "Of course, you are quite right, we will eliminate those rebels, at least in our sector. But I was not looking for any recognition. I was just doing my job."

"Of course, you were. We all are just doing what our duty calls for. But don't you agree if the Emperor would be listening more to what the naval admiralty recommends and less to what other elements close to him advise, we would have put an end to this smoldering rebellion already some years ago. And we would have gotten rid of those crime lords along with them." The Fleet Admiral was slowly talking himself into a rage and a gaze in the faces around them confirmed that he was not alone in his opinion. And yet, it might arouse suspicion, if she adopted their views too quickly. With a slow wag of her head, Serina interposed, "I can't imagine the Emperor to be so easily influenced by those around him. Certainly, he will hear what they suggest, but he has always made his own decisions."

Porish snorted derisively. "You never had the questionable privilege of attending one of the meetings with the Emperor and Lord Vader or you would know who truly makes the decisions in this Empire!"

"Are you saying that we are ruled by a Dark Lord of the Sith instead of our beloved Emperor?" It was quite difficult for Serina to give her voice the appropriate incredulity. Inwardly, she had to laugh at the ignorance of the men around her. Sure, the Empire was ruled by a Sith Lord. But it was certainly not Vader who held the reins in a quite tight grip.

The admiral nodded in confirmation. "Of course, he makes it appear as if he obtains the Emperor's consent on each decision. But we all know the truth. Whoever disagrees with him does that only once. You should know that best. Just think of your uncle. What do you think would happen if the Emperor made a decision that is not to the liking of that black garbed sorcerer?" With a raised eyebrow, he gazed at the younger woman expectantly.

Slowly, she nodded in reluctant consent. "You do have a point there. I never looked at it this way. But there is certainly nothing we can do to change that situation." She allowed a measure of dejectedness to reflect in her expression as if she wished there would actually be something they could accomplish regarding this issue.

The slightly older man looked at her for a long moment, obviously evaluating if he could entrust his newest addition to their group with whatever scheme they had apparently been considering. Not willing to leave that decision up to any passing whim, Serina used the Force to goad him in the appropriate direction. With a small nod to himself, he arrived at a decision. "You are aware that we are not the only ones who would prefer to rid the Empire of the influence of this arrogant, devious remnant of times long past. Sure, he aided us in getting rid of the Jedi, but now we don't need his sorcerer's ways any longer. His time is up. He just hasn't accepted that yet."

Serina did not like the direction this conversation was taking one bit. This kind of thinking just got people killed. There had been numerous examples since she had first met the Sith Lord and she had heard of many others even from the fall of the Republic until that time. From the sensations, she gathered from the other men around her, the Fleet Admiral had been diligent in surrounding himself with like-minded individuals who would give their best to achieve this mutual goal. And, based on her invented story, he was now convinced that she would not hesitate to throw in her lot with them. Conjuring an expectant smile on her face, as if she allowed some hopefulness to bud within her, she nodded in agreement. Then she interjected, "But he is quite powerful, from what I heard. And he will hardly step aside without a fight."

"We have taken that into account. If we'd attack him directly, we would not have the chance of a snowflake on _Tatooine_. But if we set up the right kind of trap..." After several minutes of further deliberations, Serina had to admit that the plan they had concocted did have a slight chance of success. Supplying the Dark Lord with information regarding a rebel outpost and the sighting of a Force-wielding individual at that location would probably cause her master to hurry there in person, especially if they could apply some urgency to the report. If they rigged the place with enough explosives and followed up with the full firepower of their ships, even a Sith Lord would have little chance of surviving such a set-up. They would later tell the Emperor, that it had been a trap of some rebels and that Vader had disregarded all their advice, which would certainly be in accord with her master's usual behavior. And that they had tried to save him but had been too late.

It was their hope, that, with the influence of the Sith Lord on Palpatine removed, they would acquire greater power and could improve the situation in the Empire. Of course, they had no idea that getting rid of the Dark Lord would not solve their problem at all. The galaxy would still be ruled by a Sith and, besides that, the influence of Grand Moff Tarkin and his likes had certainly not provided any kind of improvement, at least not from Serina's point of view. She would prefer her dark master anytime over the lanky, cruel-hearted officer she had met onboard one of the Emperor's secret projects some years prior.

* * *

Two weeks later, the scheming was slowly taking on its final form. They had caught a smuggler just a few days prior. A thorough interrogation had led to the discovery of a nest of dissidents on a small, nondescript planet in the neighboring sector. The location for their trap had been found. Once they had decided the part each of them would be tasked with, the prepared message could be transmitted to Lord Vader's office. The _Stealth_ was already on its way back to _Rintonne_ to meet with the other ships of Fleet Admiral Porish's task force.

When Serina stepped into her office, a blinking light on her display informed her of a new message. "Dear Serai, your uncle and I are so proud of your newest assignment. We hope that you are well ..." the message droned on. Quickly, the young woman transferred the transmission to a small datapad and launched a quite unique decrypting routine. Moments later, only seven words remained of the minute-long monolog, affirming her assumption regarding the unnamed sponsor of the teenage Porish. _Connection confirmed, agent en route, first supply_ Rintonne _._ With a swipe of her thumb, she deleted the result along with the whole transmission from the pad. _All right then, tomorrow night_ , Serina thought to herself, _not much time for my preparations, but it will have to suffice._

* * *

A large variety of personnel and droids had assembled in the spacious main hangar bay patiently awaiting the arrival of the shuttles from the planet below. Nobody noticed the black clad figure in the shadows behind some large transport crates at the far end of the unloading zone. Soon the first of the supply carriers settled down and bustling activity erupted. Crate after crate hovered down from the hold and was placed onto repulsorsleds for the transport into the bowels of the Star Destroyer.

As the unloading neared its conclusion, Serina caught sight of a swiftly moving, barely visible form emerging from a small hatch located opposite to the cargo ramp on the upper surface of the vessel. A lithe figure slipped down the side of the shuttle and moved toward the nearest exit using the cover provided by the other carriers and various containers cluttering the bay at the edges of the unloading zone.

Once the agent had exited the hanger, Serina would lose sight of him. Thus, she reached out with her mind to establish an invisible link, allowing her to track his advance further into the ship. Whomever her master had sent, the young man was clearly strong in the Force and well trained in its use. Another apprentice of the Dark Lord? Most likely! Looking forward to their upcoming meeting with eager anticipation, Serina used the shadows of the various crates to slip through one of the maintenance hatches. At a leisurely pace, she followed him further into the ship.

The path he used spoke volumes of his familiarity with Imperial Star Destroyers. Used mainly by droids, it provided enough nooks and small storage lockers to avoid the occasional maintenance worker with ease. Soon the agent had reached the engineering section and made his way upwards toward the officers' quarters. Using only small maintenance lifts to gain altitude in the huge vessel, Serina was just about to step out into another deserted corridor. As she reached for her quarry through the Force, she drew up short. He had stopped his advance and was apparently waiting for her in one of the rooms at the far end of the hallway.

The door into the maintenance shop slid aside at her approach. Workbenches, deactivated droids, and long rows of shelves with replacement parts greeted her. Although she could sense the young man through the Force, she searched in vain for a sign of his presence in the cluttered room. Without further hesitation, she detached her lightsaber from her belt and stepped inside. As the doors slid shut again behind her, she moved to the right and hugged the small space of bare wall beside the entrance.

Suddenly, the lights cut out, plunging the large shop in utter darkness. But she did not require any light to sense his attack. Allowing the Force to guide her actions, she dove for the nearest workbench and rolled underneath to the far side. As she jumped back to her feet and gazed toward the spot she had just vacated, she locked eyes with a young man, slightly taller than herself, staring back at her across the bright red glow of his weapon. For long moments, they just stood there, each of them trying to get a good measure of their opponent.

Vader's agent was still young, perhaps sixteen or seventeen at the most. Brimming with dark side powers, he had apparently been transformed into a deadly fighter from a very early age. Serina could sense a piqued curiosity regarding who and what she herself was. Had Vader not told him, that his contact was a Force user as well? Was this assignment a test for the young man? Or was he to challenge her skills also? She would not stand a chance against his strength and agility, but she would manage to hold him off in a short exchange through her other abilities. And if her master wanted to pit them against each other for a little sport first before accomplishing their mutual assignment, she would certainly be the last person to refuse.

As she pressed the activator switch on her lightsaber causing the orange blade to emerge, a feral grin appeared on the youth's face. With a fluid motion, he leaped onto the workbench, but Serina was already retreating toward the larger open space just in front of the entrance. The only light in the room came from their weapons as he jumped back down to the floor and advanced toward her slowly. Then he attacked.

Allowing the small but bright furnace of dark desires and hoarded dark emotions of others, always kept in a corner of her soul, to burst open and spread throughout her being, she used it to tap into the vastness of the dark side and time slowed perceptibly around her. Perceiving his slashes and cuts before he even started to execute them, she had enough time to deflect, sidestep or allow them to swipe through over or under her. For long moments, they moved about in an eerie dance, weaving back and forth in the limited space, casting impenetrable shadows on the equipment around them, the only noises to be heard the cackling of their lightsabers and an occasional grunt from the combatants. Then their blades clashed, red sizzling against orange, as she stared in his face only half an arm's length from her own.

"Welcome on board, I've been expecting you." She finally told him and pushed away backward, back-flipping further down between the workbenches, finally leaping onto one of them. Through the Force, she reached for the illumination controls next to the hatch. When the room was bathed in the harsh white glare typical for the mechanical departments of the Star Destroyer, she extinguished her lightsaber and jumped down toward the black clad figure. Then she took a closer look at the young man in front of her.

For a moment he hesitated, as his scrutinizing gaze measured her up, but finally, his blade disappeared as well.

"I assume, you are my contact." It was not really a question, yet Serina confirmed it with a short nod.

"And you are the agent to eliminate our targets." It was not a question either, but the youth agreed as well.

"Do you have a name?" she inquired, "just for convenience's sake."

"Starkiller, that's what my master calls me," he informed her. There was no need to lie. After all, she was obviously also an agent of his master. And the Dark Lord had told him to cooperate with his contact person, so he apparently trusted her.

"Good, something we have in common," at his quizzical expression she added, "the master, not the name."

"And what are you called?" he returned her questioning.

"My name for this mission is Serai Wills, so that's all you need to know for now." She knew too little of the place this mere boy had in Vader's many schemes, no need to tell him more about herself at this point. "But we need to move. I'm surprised that nobody has shown up yet. This time I will lead the way. Just stay out of sight."

Then she extended her perception toward the corridor outside the maintenance shop. It was still deserted, but she could already sense some workers approaching from the level below. The doors slid aside as she stepped into the sensor range. Without another glance backward, Serina slipped soft-footed out into the hallway.

* * *

Some thirty minutes later, she opened the door to her quarters and stepped inside. She had to admit that the young man was exceedingly well trained. Once she had left the maintenance area, she had stopped at a small supply closet where she had placed one of her uniforms before heading toward the hangar bay. From there, she had been able to walk in plain sight as she headed up toward the officers' row. Though she had not even caught a glimpse of Starkiller since leaving him in the droid repair shop, she had always been aware of his presence hard on her heels.

And she did not have to wait long before he slipped through her door left open for just that purpose. With a motion of her hand, she applied the Force to remove a small metal plate from the sensor and allowed the door to whoosh shut behind him. With a quick gaze, Starkiller took in the details of her room before stepping up behind her as she settled down at her private terminal. "Senior Commander. Quite a rank to attain at your age. Or is it just part of your cover?"

Serina looked up at him and favored him with a shrewd smile. Of course, she was in no way obliged to answer his question, but she had sensed a quite innocent curiosity in the young man so she complied anyway. "Part of my cover ID, but my specialist rank has been Captain for an awfully long time already. Had it not been for my assignment to Lord Vader, I would easily be a Commander, if not a Major by now. Therefore, I do have the proper qualifications. Otherwise, this mission would have been doomed from the start. Fleet Admiral Porish is quite a stickler for his officers meeting the highest standards possible." Her smile took on a bemused expression. "He is not so different from our master at all. If somebody fulfills his expectations, he can be quite generous and befriending. But if he gets disappointed, his judgment is swift and ruthless."

At Starkiller's barely noticeable nod of agreement, she turned back to her screen and pulled up the first of the schematics she had prepared for their assignment. "It's a pity that he hates Lord Vader the way he does," she added after a short pause. "And he should know better than to try to lure a Sith Lord into a trap. But aside from that, he really is a good and capable officer."

* * *

The meeting with the commanders of the two smaller, Victory-class Star Destroyers, that were part of Porish's sector fleet, was scheduled for 1900, right after her customary dinner with the admiral. By the time the serving droid had removed the dishes and supplied them with fresh glasses of Lomin ale, the other members of the inner circle had congregated in the officers' lounge around them. The last to join were the commanders of the other vessels with their respective second-in-commands.

Porish rose to his feet and greeted the assembled conspirators. For the next half hour, Serina listened intently to the reports regarding the accomplished preparations for their plan, as the admiral called upon those responsible for the respective implementation. She was the last one to give account.

Swiftly she rose to her feet and addressed the group. "We sent out the prepared message regarding the supposed Jedi sighting at the rebel outpost today at noon. Our contact within Naval Command at _Imperial Center_ has confirmed that the information has been passed on toward Lord Vader's office and that he is currently on-site as well. So far, we have not heard anything in response, but it is certainly only a question of a few hours before we will. My department is instructed to contact me immediately if they receive any kind of transmission from Naval Command or Lord Vader personally." She lowered herself back into her chair, as aware as any of the others that as soon as a reply from the Dark Lord arrived, they would be on the move.

"But what can we do, if he just ignores it?" One of the admirals from the other ships interjected. "Perhaps he gets suspicious?" Within moments, a lively discussion erupted with several of the men jumping to their feet and congregating around Porish.

Suddenly, Serina's comlink buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out and held it close to her ear, listening intently to the message from her department. Then she rose to her feet and stepped up behind the Fleet Admiral. "Brask," she whispered into his ear once she had gained his attention, "a transmission just arrived. Perhaps our waiting is over. I'll be back as soon as I have confirmation of the content."

With a barely perceptible nod, the slightly older man dismissed her and turned his attention back to the men in front of him. None of the other officers took any notice as she walked past them and exited the lounge. Then she headed toward the bridge, resisting the urge to turn around and watch a black shadow slip out of one of the adjacent rooms and approach the door she had just stepped through.

She did not even get a chance to ride the turbolift all the way to the bridge. But she had not really expected to get that far before having to head back down to the lounge, anyway. Her comlink buzzed angrily in her pocket. When she pulled it out and turned it on, the agitated voice of her second-in-command rang shrill in her ear, "Dolms here. Where are you, Sir? Something is happening at the lounge! One of the officers just contacted us. There were loud crashes and screams to be heard. And then he was cut off suddenly."

But Serina kept her calm. "What are you saying? I just left there. Why should there be a problem down there?" Just that moment, the turbolift doors slipped aside. Although her path was blocked by the impatiently waiting young man she had just been talking to, she caught a glance at several other members of her department working frantically to acquire further information regarding the situation a few decks below them. Without another word she moved aside and allowed Dolms to step into the turbolift. As it took them back down toward the deck she had just come from, he informed her of the actions already taken. "After we got the call, I informed a squad of stormtroopers. They should be on-site by the time we get there. And we tried to contact the admiral or any of the other officers, but nobody is responding."

"Did you contact anybody else working on that deck?"

"We did and they tried to enter the lounge, but the doors are locked," he was quick to affirm. "But they confirmed that something is happening inside. They also heard loud noises and yelling."

By the time Serina and her second-in-command had rushed from the turbolift to the entrance of the officers' lounge, a small crowd had gathered in front of the locked doors. Several stormtroopers had started to use their weapons to cut through the locking mechanism preventing the doors from slipping aside. Various workers from the nearby mess hall had formed a loose semicircle around them and were agitatedly discussing what might be happening inside.

Serina stepped up to the officer in command of the squad and demanded an update on their efforts. But nothing beyond the current attempt at forcing their way inside had happened so far. With her eyes blazing angrily at the helmeted figure she yelled at him, "Have you checked on the other entrance yet?"

"Which other entrance, Sir?"

"The one for the serving droids, of course." Her expression grew even irater.

"No, Sir, but we will immediately." He quickly motioned for two of his soldiers to investigate. Serina was aware that this access was not designed for human passage and without an override for the door control mechanism nobody from inside the room would have been able to use it to escape. The same held true for the other direction, but it would give the troopers something to do. And from the sensations she acquired from the inside of the lounge, Starkiller had already left moments earlier using just that exit to escape unnoticed. She did not bother to use the Force to search for the young man. He would already be on his way back to the shuttle bay and with the current continual coming and going of the transports he would be able to leave the ship long before they would have a chance to catch up with him. Hopefully, he had been true to his word and had stuck to their agreement.

After some more long-drawn-out minutes had passed, the locking mechanism finally gave way and the doors slipped aside under the forceful push of the troopers. Serina had seen quite some gruesome scenes in her service for Lord Vader, but the carnage that greeted them caused even her to gasp for breath. The men inside never even had the slightest bit of a chance against Starkiller. Many of them had been pierced through, several of them were missing limbs and others had been nearly cut in half by his lightsaber. Due to the weapon used, there was a surprisingly small amount of blood to be found. The high energy blade had seared the wounds immediately, but there had been some bleeding from cuts and gashes some of the officers had sustained by crashing into broken furniture or shards from the dishes.

With a forceful push, she edged forward past the commander of the squad and hurried to the place Porish had occupied when she had left the room. A low moan confirmed that the young assassin had kept his word. The Fleet Admiral was still alive, but only barely. Not all the bacta in the galaxy would be able to prevent his death. The red blade had pierced his body just below the sternum. It had missed the heart but had severed the spine, rendering him completely immobile from the waist downward. As she knelt beside him and lifted his head into her lap, it became obvious quickly that she would not have much time to get her questions answered. His body was shutting down rapidly, as organ after organ failed. He was clearly in agony, but Serina could not allow compassion to prevent her from fulfilling her task.

Concentrating on his pain and fears, she drew them into herself and reached for the Force through them. Then she plunged herself into his mind, searching for the final confirmation required by her master. It did not take long to find what she was looking for. A tormented croak accompanied her withdrawal from Porish's mind. "Why?"

For a short moment, she favored him with a pitying smile. "Hating Lord Vader is never a smart idea to start with. Trying to lure him into a trap is one of the surest ways of getting oneself killed. But actually, you should be dead already more than eight years by now." The uncomprehending expression on the older man's face drew a sharp laugh from the young woman. "We were so careful to eliminate all of them, even to the third degree of kinship, to prevent exactly this situation. But nobody knew that you were Largos' son. Thus, you escaped. You should be thankful. You had eight good years of meaningful service to the Empire. And you had such potential. If it hadn't been for your hate for Lord Vader, nobody would have ever found out about your ancestry. You could have had so many more years." She shrugged in mock surrender. "What a foolish thing to do!"

"Who are you?" The words were already barely discernable, his life force fading away quickly.

Serina bent down to his face and whispered into his ear, "I'm Vader's mistress and so much more."

With his final breath, Porish's eyes closed and the head in her lap rolled to the side.

* * *

"So, he was Lergos' son?"

Serina stood behind Vader's meditation chair and watched the scenes from the officers' lounge on the _Stealth_ currently displayed on one of the screens on the inside surface of the meditation chamber from behind his prominent shoulder. "Yes, master, illegitimate, but after the death of his mother, the admiral paid for his way through military prep school and afterward for a place at the academy. When the 501st took out Lergos' homestead on _Corulag,_ Porish returned there to investigate into what had happened. He discovered who had been involved and concluded quite correctly that the action had been ordered by you, master. From that day on his whole life and career had been geared to achieving a high enough position in the Navy to instigate some kind of coup against you as an act of revenge for losing his father before he had a chance to prove his worth to him. He gathered several like-minded officers into his inner circle and placed others in command of the ships in his sector fleet. But they are all taken care of."

For a moment, she hesitated. Did he expect some kind of report on the young man he had sent to eliminate their targets? Most likely. Before she had a chance to continue, the Dark Lord swiveled his chair around to face her. She quickly sat down on the narrow ledge at the entrance of the chamber and looked up at him.

"What do you think of Starkiller?"

"He is powerful, master; strong in the dark side, ruthless and absolutely lethal, but also very controlled if the situation demands it. I asked him to leave enough life in Porish so I could confirm my findings in his mind. And he did exactly just that. A truly useful tool, but very dangerous should he ever turn against you."

"That will not happen," Vader did not even bother to consider that possibility. "Anything else?" He gazed at her expectantly.

"Yes, master. Have you ever heard of a young redhead by the name of Arica Pradeux? She used a K-12 recognition code, so she might be in direct service to the Emperor himself. When she killed the traitor, she wielded a lightsaber with a magenta blade. And she certainly had some training in the use of the Force, but she is definitely no inquisitor."

"Another apprentice of my master," the statement was not addressed to her, but filled with an emotion, Serina could not really place at first. Contempt, disgust, anger, there was a little bit of each of them in it. "You will find out more about her. If she is close to the Emperor, she will be found at his receptions. Whatever is necessary to get that information, do it."

"Yes, master." And she had already developed a plan for achieving just that.

* * *

If the young senator had qualms about his escort - acquired just a day prior and quite surprisingly at that - he didn't show it. The girl was dressed in a lavish dark blue dress that left one shoulder bare. Below the tight-fitting bodice, the skirt billowed outward only slightly. Glittering highlights were woven into the Shimmersilk material in intricate patterns, sparkling in all colors of the spectrum when struck by the various overhead lights. Her long, nearly black hair was pinned up elaborately with various wisps touching down below her neck. She did not wear as much jewelry as some of the other women at the reception, but it accented her attire in a decent, yet somehow sublime way. Quickly she drew the attention of the other guests and the elation of having acquired such a rapturing escort was blatantly etched into the face of the young man's face at her side.

Soon all the invited guests had arrived and the _Harvest Day_ celebration started to take its course. A few speeches, various performances, and an opulent buffet later, Serina was getting close to writing the evening off as a waste of time when suddenly a familiar sensation touched the edges of her perception. Arica! It had to be her. After their close encounter above _Rintonne_ , there was no chance for her to miss the unique presence the young redhead projected through the Force. Out of the corner of her eye, she scanned the various groups spread out across the large entrance hall in front of the throne room.

Finally, her gaze caught a slender figure at the far end of the room, not far from the turbolifts leading down to the landing pads. The young girl stood arm in arm with an elderly officer, part of a small group congregated around a tall, lean figure Serina recognized immediately: Grand Moff Tarkin. Her outfit and jewelry could easily compete with those of the older ladies from the aristocratic houses, her makeup and hairstyle adding several years to her true age.

But just as her own attention was not confined to the young senator at her side, she noticed Arica repeatedly scanning the reception hall while feigning unadulterated attentiveness to whatever Tarkin was deliberating on. Had she sensed Serina's presence as well? With the heavy makeup and the quite unusual attire, it was doubtful that the redhead would be able to spot her among the many guests unless she revealed her presence to her directly.

And yet, without physical contact, she would not be able to acquire the information Vader had ordered her to procure. Her diligent searches within the Imperial databanks had provided her with only a few additional details about the girl outside of her true name, Mara Jade. And that had been information gained by sheer coincidence alone. Since the girl had acted as a dancer on _Rintonne_ , Serina had, on a last thought, inquired into the performances that had taken place at the palace throughout the past ten years when all other searches had come up empty. And there she had discovered her, reported as one of those assumed to perform privately for the Emperor himself, apparently in training for just that task since early childhood. The writer had hinted at her being perhaps more than just a dancer, but his thoughts had gone into the direction of a concubine. Nobody would ever consider her to be a trained assassin. But Serina certainly knew better.

But seeking the necessary contact bore some risks. Mara was well trained in the use of a lightsaber and most likely quick to employ it if she interpreted any action as an attack. In order to have any chance of success at all, Serina would have to take her by surprise.

"Excuse me for a moment, I'll be right back." After receiving an acknowledging nod from the young senator, she slowly made her way toward the refresher area at the far end of the reception hall. As she passed the group around the Grand Moff, the gaze of the young redhead swept across her. For a short moment, their eyes locked. It only took an instant for recognition to hit home.

The private booths off the central refresher area were deserted as Serina was quick to ascertain while she waited for the redhead to arrive. She did not have long to wait. With a quick reach through the Force, she deactivated the automatic door control. Nobody would bother them in the minutes to come.

"Pretty far from your duty station, aren't you? Or did I miss the arrival of the _Stealth_?" Mara finally addressed the slightly older woman as she settled into a casual stance leaning against one of the lavatories a few feet away from her.

But Serina was not fooled. The appearance was deceiving. Nothing about the girl would ever be "casual". "I have a new assignment now," she informed her. "Didn't you hear what happened after your short stay onboard?"

"No, but I'm sure, you will enlighten me," Mara would certainly not be fooled by the other woman's sociable manner, either. There was apparently more to her than she had uncovered during her mission just little over a month prior.

"Just a few weeks after you eliminated the traitor," a subtle change in the young girl's presence in the Force confirmed Serina's assumption based on the voice she had heard in the recording, "Fleet Admiral Porish and several of his staff suffered a similar fate at the hands of an unknown young man. I had only left the group for a short time, but when I returned the other men were dead already and the admiral just barely alive. He died in my arms only moments later. Shortly after that, I left the _Stealth_ for a new assignment here on _Imperial Center._ "

And with that transfer, Serai Wills had again ceased to exist as far as the official records were concerned. But Serina doubted that the girl across from her was limited to the data found in the regular naval databanks. What would happen if Mara managed to discover her true identity and her connection to Lord Vader? But Serina's options were limited. Her master's orders were to be obeyed, even if she wasn't comfortable with the consequences. And yet, perhaps she could use what could not be kept a secret to take her counterpart by surprise.

As she allowed some of the strong emotions from within the tightly controlled, smoldering spot deep within her to fill her soul and grant her quick access to the powers of the dark side, she took a step forward and extended her hand. "So, how should I call you? Arica Pradeux? Or is it Mara Jade, as someone just told me? My name is Serina, Serina Wanders." _Be polite, shake it_ , she willed the young woman into accepting her proffered hand. For a moment, Mara hesitated, but then she complied.

The viselike grip, she suddenly found her hand in, immediately set off the younger woman's instincts. But as she started to reach for her hidden lightsaber with her free hand, Serina had already jerked her forward. As Mara took an involuntary step toward the other woman, Serina shifted to her left and placed her own free hand at the nape of the younger woman's neck now partially turned toward her. Then she unleashed the full power of her innate abilities.

Using the girl's surprise to overcome her mental shields she reached deep into her mind. Pictures of the latest assassination and episodes of a rigorous training regimen, physical and mental as well, altered with scenes from various official receptions. But as she plunged herself deeper into Mara's memories, one face proved to be a constant, appearing repeatedly with varying degrees of clarity. It was a face, Serina would never forget, although she had managed to avoid seeing it since she had lost her child more than four years prior. A face full of maliciousness and forever marred by the exertion of dark side powers, sagging, pale and dominated by a set of yellow eyes reminding her of a vicious serpent. And she could sense the total loyalty the young girl connected with that face, with the person it belonged to. He was her master and she was his faithful servant. One of many, Serina was certain, but, apparently, Mara didn't even realize that.

Suddenly, Serina halted in her search, her gaze riveted on a memory of the Emperor's face. But it was no longer a memory at all. The yellow eyes drew closer, filling her mind's perception until nothing else remained. Then a piercing lightning emanated from those eyes, tearing into her, filling her whole being with a searing pain. As she was thrown back into her own mind, her body was forcefully shoved away from the girl's and slammed into the far wall of the refresher area. Every nerve in her body was on fire, every muscle trembled in uncontrollable spasms and a deep, vicious voice resounded in her head, "She is mine! Leave her alone, or both of you will pay dearly for it!" With a groan, Serina slumped to the floor as darkness finally claimed her tortured mind.

She didn't stay unconscious for more than a few short moments. Another groan escaped her lips, as she tried to regain control over her trembling limbs. But her nerves still tingled with the burning sensation and her mind continued to reverberate with the malicious voice. For long moments, all she could manage was to concentrate on her breathing, forcing her body to calm down, emptying her mind of everything that had just transpired.

Finally, she opened her eyes and gazed up at the young girl. Mara had returned to her previous position and was again leaning casually against one of the lavatories. But the metal object in her hand spoke volumes. Serina would not get another chance to take her by surprise.

Gingerly, she got to her feet and smoothed down her disheveled dress. "So, he didn't order you to kill me?" she voiced her astonishment at still being alive.

Mara shook her head. "No, he told me that the Empire can still benefit from your abilities. And," she paused to give her counterpart a scrutinizing once-over, "you are to help me learn how to defend myself against whatever you just did to me."

"Of course, he would want me to do that," Serina mumbled under her breath as she thought about the Emperor's order. Of course, he could have taught the young girl himself and with much greater efficiency than she would ever manage. But once the task was completed, her only advantage over the young woman would be gone. And the message to Lord Vader was obvious: Leave my protégé alone or she will take out yours.


	10. Infiltration

**Infiltration**

(1 BBY)

The gutted remains of the three Star Destroyers that had once guarded the Imperial cloning facilities on _Kamino_ provided a perfect hiding place for the odd-shaped vessel. The man sitting behind the controls in his undershirt was scanning the frequencies used by the ships dipping down into the gravity well of the planet or departing for destinies unknown. Suddenly a familiar face appeared in one of the transmissions. Attentively he listened to the exchange between two young women and the white-haired Jedi who had tried to arrest him just a few hours earlier.

"We'll use the _Rogue Shadow_ to ferry Vader to _Dantooine_ ," Captain Juno informed the other young woman.

Then she added, "At the same time, we'll send a dozen freighters in a dozen different directions. Even if someone finds out we have him, they won't know which ship to follow."

"Excellent," the dark-haired woman replied. "And the security detail?"

Juno and the old Jedi exchanged glances.

"We have it covered, your Highness," she answered.

After discussing some further issues regarding their prominent prisoner, the white-haired Jedi concluded, "We'll contact you again once we have Vader safely locked away."

"Good. This is a turning point for the Alliance. You should both be very proud. May the Force be with you."

As the transmission concluded, the man at the controls started entering commands into his navicomp. Patiently he waited for the freighters just mentioned in the transmission to depart the system. Among them, he recognized the unique configuration of the _Rogue Shadow_. When the ship that carried the imprisoned Sith Lord had accelerated past the remains from the recently concluded battle and jumped to hyperspace just beyond the edges of the planet's gravity well, the bounty hunter maneuvered his odd-shaped vessel out of its hiding place.

The trip to _Dantooine_ would take him to the edges of the _Outer Rim_ right across the galaxy from his current position. It would take a few days and some orientation stops on the way. So far, he had no idea yet on how to spring the Dark Lord out of the clutches of the rebels. He knew his own abilities and they were no match for the clone named Starkiller whom he had seen in action repeatedly during the past days. But he would cross that bridge when he got there. Giving up on a bounty he had been working so hard for was no option for Boba Fett. After all, he had a reputation to lose.

* * *

A light snore from the direction of the bunk behind the cockpit confirmed to Serina that the bounty hunter had used the long stretch through hyperspace toward _Dantooine_ to catch up on some well-deserved sleep. Having left her boots, robe, and lightsaber behind in the prison cell on the deck below, she nimbly climbed the ladder into the cockpit without making a noise and slipped into the vacant pilot's seat. The angular impossibility of hyperspace greeted her from the canopy. The low hum of the engines provided a steady background noise for the meditation that would allow her to invigorate her body and at the same time keep her senses trained on the bounty hunter behind her. But in order to let go of the events of the past few days to reach the calm essential for the meditation, she allowed them to replay in her mind.

 _"Join me on_ Kamino _," her master had told her after she had reported to him another failed mission, another failed attempt at locating whatever base the rebels currently used as a backup for their fleet. Although she had not been able to completely dispel the unease she had felt at having to face him after so many missions accomplishing so little results as those of the past year, she still had been quite anxious to see him, to sense his dark presence, to perhaps get the chance to feel his mind within hers again after such a long time._ Kamino _: home of the cloning facilities for the stormtroopers. What was he doing there, what kind of project was he involved in at this time? Why had he ordered her to join him there now? Had he come up with a new scheme to locate the rebel fleet, their hidden bases, or their leaders?_

 _That all of the methods she had employed before the events on_ Corellia _just about one year prior were no longer producing the desired results, she had discovered quite quickly. And she had told him so. The rebels were better organized ever since Vader's own agent, the now dead Starkiller, had managed to bring the various groups of dissidents together and form an alliance, the "Alliance to Restore the Republic", as they had called themselves. And he had managed to free their leaders from the Death Star, paying in return a high price for that rescue._

 _Now they no longer had to rely on smugglers to supply their various needs. They had their own supply chains now, most likely funded by the Senators who had become the leaders of the movement._ _And they still had Rahm Kota, the former Jedi General, whom she had no interest in ever meeting again in person. Even if he was blind now, he would certainly recognize her immediately from the events about four years prior._ _Thus, going undercover and becoming part of the rebellion had become an impossible feat for her._

 _Therefore, her actions had been limited to keeping tabs on some of the senators who had, in the past, been known to befriend Bail Organa or Mon Mothma. But apparently, the rebel leaders had been wise enough to cut all these connections. None had been approached by questionable persons, they had gone nowhere out of the ordinary and had received no suspicious communications. She had come up again and again with absolutely nothing to tie them to the rebellion or to use as a lead to the elusive leaders thereof. There were still a few targets left, some of which she would have preferred to not pursue at all. But of course, she would do just that, if ordered to by her dark master._

 _Her last mission had been to detect a pattern in the locations where the rebel fleet had been discovered so far. On board of the_ Corrupter _, a Victory II-class Star Destroyer, she had traveled to the various spots, checked out the planets nearby and analyzed the methods by which each location had been discovered. Finally, she had meditated on all that data to discover the next rendezvous point in line. And she had been successful to a certain degree. They had found the fleet at just the location she had predicted, but it had been in retreat already and had disappeared before even a minor battle had commenced. Somebody had warned them. All her efforts would amount to nothing as long as there were traitors within the Imperial fleet. They would have to be rooted out first before she would give it another try._

 _When the_ Corruptor _had dropped her off at_ Kamino _, she had been surprised at the small fleet guarding the planet and at the turbulences she had felt in the Force emanating from the structure the Tie fighters had escorted her shuttle to. She had remained quite tongue-tied when Lord Vader had shown her the facility and the latest of the clones who had just entered the final stage of his training. She had asked to evaluate the data collected since the project had started and to her surprise, her master had consented to it. It hadn't taken her long to realize the problems Vader had been facing with the clones of the young man she had once worked together with during one of her assignments: on the one side, there had been the problem of overcoming the effects the Force-sensitivity had on the cloning process - although he had seemed to have found some ways around that - and on the other side there had been the strong emotional bonds Galen Marek had developed toward the end, especially the love he had felt for the young pilot of the_ Rogue Shadow _, Juno Eclipse. All of the clones so far had failed in overcoming those emotions and had, as a result, been eliminated by her master. She had doubted that this latest clone would be any different, although he had lasted already a lot longer than any of the others had._

 _And the events that had followed shortly after had proved her assessment to be only too correct. But unlike those before him, this clone had been powerful and cunning enough, to best Lord Vader and to escape in her master's personal Tie fighter. When the bounty hunter, whom she had contacted in Vader's name, had arrived on_ Kamino _after his first failed attempt at retrieving the fugitive clone on_ Cato Neimoidia _, Vader had changed the assignment to capture Juno Eclipse instead. After all, the young woman would be the perfect bait to lure the escaped clone back to the facility. But her master seldom trusted anybody, certainly not the notorious Boba Fett. Therefore, he had sent her in an experimental Tie fighter to trail the Terror Troopers he had sent to accompany the bounty hunter on his search for the young captain._

 _Boba Fett had proved to be quite resourceful and soon they had lain in wait among some asteroids near the_ Itani Nebula _, the newest rendezvous point for the ragtag collection of vessels belonging to the Alliance. The arrival of the_ Rogue Shadow _had been the signal for the attack and when, shortly later, Boba Fett had jumped to hyperspace with his young captive, Serina had ordered the retreat of the few remaining Tie fighters and the return to_ Kamino _, certain that Starkiller would be on his way there as well. But he would not be coming alone. She had wondered greatly if her master had truly taken an attack by the whole rebel fleet into account, but the interference from the nebula had not allowed her to inform him of that ahead of her return._

 _During the hours in hyperspace, she had tried to get some rest, but the attempt had quickly turned into a captivating vision. She had seen her master threatening the clone with the death of the young captain, had seen Starkiller kneel before the Sith Lord, then Juno had used one of Starkiller's lightsabers to strike at Vader, damaging the chest panel, and had ended up being flung past the edge of the roof by a powerful push from the Sith Lord. She had landed many meters below on another platform and first Starkiller and, moments later, her master had followed her there. Seeing the broken body of the woman he loved, the clone had finally attacked his former master and, when apparently defeated, retaliated with the one ability Vader himself could never master: Force lightning. It had torn into the machinery her master required for survival and had brought him to his knees. The last sight her vision had provided her with had been Starkiller standing over the Dark Lord, with Vader's own lightsaber in the clone's hand resting at her master's throat._

 _Her own anguish at seeing her master in such a deadly situation had torn her out of the vision, leaving her full of uncertainty about the decision the young man had been about to make: either kill Vader and, through that act, plunge again into the dark side, or spare him and follow the Jedi path while risking another confrontation at another time. She knew her master well enough to know that he would never give up on pursuing Starkiller unless another much more promising target came along. And the clone had to be aware of that as well._

 _Desperately, she had considered ways of ensuring that her master would survive, that the clone would refrain from killing him. But her own abilities were no match at all for his. The direct approach had been totally out of the question. Finally, she had come up with a way to at least improve the chances that Starkiller would allow his former master to live._

 _When they had arrived at_ Kamino _, the battle had already been underway with the_ Salvation _, once Captain Eclipse's ship, on a crash course down toward the planet. Serina had managed to slip unnoticed through the fray and land her vessel close to the spire where the fight would take place. Then she had waited for Starkiller's arrival. She didn't have to wait long. As she had watched from a distance as her vision unfolded, she had opened herself up to the Force, ready to put her plan into action. When only moments later, Vader's forceful push had sent the young captain flying, right before she could plunge to what would have been her certain death, Starkiller had stopped her from flying past the edge of the lower platform._

 _But he had been too rushed in his action, too distracted by his former master, to slow down the young woman's drop to the hard metal roof. So Serina had reached for her through the Force and cushioned the impact just enough. It had still knocked Juno unconscious, yet it had left her, apart from a broken arm and certainly some bruises, mostly unharmed. Although Starkiller would, looking at her twisted form, assume that she had not survived the fall her weak presence in the Force should tell his subconscious otherwise._

 _And yet, it was no guaranty that he would refrain from killing the Dark Lord who had betrayed him two times already. If that happened, the girl's life would be forfeit. So Serina had used the Force to reduce her heartbeat to the barest minimum possible placing her in a deep hibernation trance. Only a thorough examination would reveal that the young captain was still alive. Should Starkiller make the wrong decision, it would only take a thought to stop the girl's heart altogether._

 _Then she had turned her attention back to the ongoing confrontation. Just moments later, Starkiller had managed to overpower the Dark Lord as her vision had foretold her. And as she had hoped, something had tipped the balance just enough to keep him from killing his beaten master kneeling in front of him only a short time thereafter._

 _On another rooftop, she had discovered the bounty hunter, ready to eliminate the clone. Starkiller had rushed to Juno's unmoving form and had scooped her into a desperate embrace. Vader had survived. So Serina had released the young woman out of the trance. As her conscience had returned, Starkiller had realized that Juno was still alive and they had kissed passionately. This had caused Boba Fett to refrain from taking his perfect shot at the clone and he had left to return to his ship. Little had he realized that by the time he had arrived, she had already slipped through the open exit hatch and had found a hiding place right below the cockpit in what appeared to be a prison cell. She knew that Vader had not paid the bounty hunter yet. He would certainly follow the Sith Lord to wherever the rebels would be taking him to preserve his chance at collecting the bounty. He would be the perfect partner in the rescue action she had set her mind to accomplish._

When Boba Fett woke up several hours later, he first rubbed his eyes to dispel the sight that just could not be. But reality would not be dispelled: there was somebody at the controls of his vessel, somebody that definitely didn't belong there. With a fluid motion, he grabbed his blaster rifle and noiselessly slipped out of the bunk. Stepping up behind the pilot's seat, he leveled the weapon at the shock of dark hair barely visible behind the tall backrest.

"Get your hands away from the controls and turn around," he snarled dangerously between clenched teeth.

Serina lifted her hands to where he could see them and slowly swiveled the seat around to face the enraged bounty hunter. A broad smile spread on her face as she greeted him, "Did you sleep well?"

Fett ignored her question. "Who are you and how did you get on my ship?" he demanded just as viciously as before.

"But you do know me already although we've never met in person yet." _And I would have preferred it to stay that way, too,_ she added to herself as she took a closer look at the well-trained man whom she knew to be just a few years older than herself. But it could not be helped: she needed the bounty hunter for what she had planned. To reveal to him her relationship with the Dark Lord was a small price to pay in return for springing her master out of the hands of the rebels.

Fett took a closer look at the young woman, lingering over the voice that did have a familiar sound to it. Then he remembered... "Bounty hunter, Lord Vader has an assignment for you. You will meet him at ..." and then she would give him the coordinates of some meeting point. The first time she had contacted him had to have been at least ten years ago. It had always been a voice-only transmission, never had he seen her face to face. Slowly, he lowered his blaster and motioned her to move to the seat to his left. "So, you're one of Vader's aides, right?" he inquired as he lowered himself into the now vacant pilot's seat.

Serina nodded in confirmation. "As a matter of fact, I am the team coordinator, so to speak. But I also run some other errands for Lord Vader."

"You got on board at Kamino, I assume. What do you want?" he questioned her further while checking the readings of the navicomp. The next orientation stop was coming up. If her answer did not suit his current intention he would have to use the stop to find a way to get rid of her.

"I have to find a way to free Lord Vader. And I will need your help to get it done."

For a moment, the bounty hunter was struck dumb at the proposition declared in a voice that left no doubt as to her conviction that she would be able to accomplish it. Was she truly just some aide of the Sith Lord? Had she seen the powers of the clone who had even bested Lord Vader on _Kamino_? Did she have any idea at all what she would be facing on _Dantooine_? Even with his help, he doubted that her chances would be anything above marginal. But if she was willing to pay his price he might take a closer look at whatever opportunity arose upon their arrival at the rebel base. After all, only a rescued Vader would be in the position to pay the bounty stilled owed for bringing Starkiller to _Kamino_. What had happened afterward had not been his fault, after all. "All right, I'll see what I can do. But it will cost you quite a fortune."

"No problem at all," Serina informed him with another smile, "name your price. I'm sure the funds at my disposal will be quite sufficient for it."

* * *

When they dropped back to realspace, a yellow star laid ahead of them accompanied by eight planets and a whole cluster of moons around them. The star map identified the sun as _Dina_ and the whole system named after the fourth planet, _Dantooine_. They had arrived at last. Only sparse traffic registered on the sensors as they approached the green-blue ball of a planet keeping to the sensor shadow of one of its moons.

"What will you do now? Call the fleet and have them attack the base?" the bounty hunter asked the young woman sitting in the seat he had used to occupy while Jango, his "father", had still flown the ship.

"First we have to make sure that he is down there. And calling the fleet will be our last option. Embarrassment is certainly not something Lord Vader approves of and I doubt that he would appreciate having to explain this particular situation to the Emperor. If we don't manage to free him ourselves, you can forget your rewards, mine and his as well," Serina informed him in no uncertain terms.

Boba favored her with a skeptical expression. "There's going to be a whole base of rebels down there. Do you want to go in there all alone? And don't forget about that clone. He is powerful if he even beat Lord Vader."

Serina nodded with a sober expression. "I know. That's why I have asked somebody to join us. She should arrive shortly. I have already set your comm unit to the right frequency. She'll contact us when she gets here."

Then she retired to one of the holding cells for prisoners on the deck below to prepare herself for the task awaiting her on the lush grasslands of the pleasant world below.

* * *

"Hey down there," a call from the cockpit pulled Serina out of her meditation, "your "somebody" has just arrived."

She quickly ascended the ladder and dropped into the seat next to the now fully suited up bounty hunter. "Any other activities in the system," she inquired.

"Just another small freighter about ten minutes ago. No sign yet of any ships of their fleet."

"Good, then we still have some time left." She pulled up a map of the green-blue world below. According to the long-range scans, they had conducted on entering the system the rebel base was most likely located near the former Jedi training enclave, but they had not yet been able to confirm that from their hiding position on the far side of the moon. It was quite fortunate that since their arrival the planet below had revolved far enough that their hiding place was no longer in the direct sensor range of the base. "Take us down there," she pointed at a spot on the smallest of the continents below them. It indicated a flat top sticking out from the level grasslands around it.

"Whatever you say," Boba confirmed and prepared his ship for lift-off.

"Caaroq, meet us down at the following coordinates," Serina passed the information to the pilot of the _StarLady_ using the same rarely used frequency as before.

"Sleek ship," the bounty hunter showed himself impressed when the black vessel about three-fourths the size of his own settled down next to the _Slave I_. "Smaller version of the Baudo-class yacht, I presume. With improvements?"

Serina only smiled. "Don't worry: she'll hold her own in a fight." There was no need to give him any further details. Who knew what the future might hold? One day they might end up on different sides of the ongoing conflict. It was better to keep some aces up her sleeve for that case. "Come on, I'll introduce you to Caaroq."

When they stepped into the common room of the _StarLady_ , Caaroq pulled her friend into a tight hug. "I'm glad you are alright. I feared the worst after the reports came in from _Kamino_."

"Yeah, that project is history. I doubt anybody will ever rebuild those facilities. And I can only hope the research went down the drain with it. You know my opinion of cloning. There might be some exceptions," she cast a meaningful glance at the cloned "son" of Jango Fett, "but I could completely dispense with most of the past output from that facility."

Caaroq nodded her agreement. "So, this is the famous bounty hunter Boba Fett?" she inquired as she turned to face the masked figure. "I'm Caaroq."

Before her friend had a chance to elaborate further, Serina interrupted her. "No room for small-talk. We don't have much time left before more of their ships return." With that said she strode toward the cockpit and slipped into the pilot's seat. By the time the others had joined her, the _StarLady_ was already heading toward the night that had just fallen on the location of the Jedi enclave.

* * *

Two standard hours later, all three of them were gathered around the central table of the common room, now displaying a detailed map of the facility they had discovered during their scouting run safely hidden by the night and the ship's cloaking device.

"He has to be down there," Serina pointed at a spot just left to the dead center of the conglomerate of prefabricated buildings. Since they had discovered the _Rogue Shadow_ on one of the landing fields outside of the fenced-in facility, Starkiller and Juno had obviously arrived ahead of them and Vader had certainly been transferred to the facility by now.

"How do you figure that? There are several energy field readings throughout the whole facility. He might be anywhere," the bounty hunter objected.

"For one, there is a large underground portion of the facility there, from what the sensors registered, with solid, reinforced walls. They would want to keep him in there and nowhere else. And secondly, did you notice how the energy fields are staggered in that area? It's not that easy to keep a Sith Lord confined for any longer period of time. You can be sure of that. They need all the safety measures they can muster." No need to reveal to him that, even without actively seeking him, she had sensed a focal point of darkness down there. "Believe me: he is right in the middle of those shields, right there." Again, she stabbed her finger into the holographic display, right into the location of the innermost energy bubble displayed.

"All right, sounds convincing. What is your plan?" His voice reflected the doubts he still harbored concerning the success of any one-man mission into the rebel base.

"Reconnaissance, diversion, extrication and escape," Serina listed the steps required to achieve her goal. "But first I need some items from your stocks." She raised her hand to prevent any discussion. "Of course, I'll reimburse you for them." She reached for a small datapad and punched in a quick list of the demolition equipment she required. "And hurry, we have only four more hours before sunrise at the base. I want to be in there before then."

When the bounty hunter returned after half an hour with the requested items, Caaroq was already in the process of preparing the _StarLady_ for lift-off. Serina had changed into her combat suit. Though only a weak protection in comparison to the Mandalorian armor Boba was wearing, the dense armor weave material would grant her extra protection against stray blaster bolts. And it was thin enough, so she could easily slip any other clothes over it. Staying unnoticed for as long as possible would have to be her highest goal for the first stage of her plan.

Serina quickly packed the remote-controlled explosive charges, one of the remote detonators and the hatch cracker Boba had provided for her into the backpack already holding a field disruptor and a specially developed slicer chip that should give her quick access to any system she encountered.

Boba showed himself noticeably impressed when he caught a glance at her equipment. "You have done this kind of job before?" he questioned her with already much less scepsis in his voice than just half an hour earlier.

With a secretive smile, Serina attached a comlink to her wrist and her lightsaber to her belt, drawing another curious look from the bounty hunter. Then she exited the common room toward the cockpit to join Caaroq as they were heading back toward the rebel base. Boba followed her and remained standing at the entrance behind the two women. Quickly Serina explained to them the rest of her plan as her ship passed the savannahs of lavender and yellow grasses into the night that still covered the far side of the planet.

* * *

They dropped Serina behind some Blba trees well out of the range of the bright floodlights from the watchtowers. Several of them guarded in regular intervals the long line of wall that surrounded most of the compound. Since it would hardly be possible to enter unnoticed through one of the main gates, Serina had decided to scale the wall instead. It was fortunate that nobody seemed to be expecting an attack. The shields were down, and, besides wall and watchtowers, no other countermeasures had become obvious in the scans.

A glance through her macrobinoculars confirmed that the area from her hiding place under the trees to the enclosure was deserted. Quickly she advanced through the tall grass until she arrived at the foot of a towering column connecting two of the wall segments at a wide angle. Then she removed the grappling spike launcher - one of the many useful devices the Jedi had been quite fond of - from one of her belt pouches. Carefully, she aimed the device at the top of the column and pressed the trigger. With a barely audible thud, it implanted itself about a foot below the top of the structure, the liquid-cable solidifying into a line strong enough to carry her weight.

As she pulled herself up onto the top of the wall, she cast a wary glance around the column toward the nearest of the guard towers. But no additional activity erupted. Nobody had noticed her. She removed her macrobinoculars from the pouch on her belt to scan the area below and toward her left leading in the direction of the central structure. Slightly to her right, the typical connected half-tires of a shield generator lay shrouded in darkness. They would be her first target. Straight ahead on the landing area right behind the guarded entrance to the compound two dark shapes loomed against the backdrop of a brightly lit area filled with several smaller starfighters: the two freighters they had discovered during their scans. They would be next. The large building on the left side of the landing area had to be the maintenance shop. Besides spare parts for the ships and other supplies as well as quarters for the maintenance crew, it should also contain some offices with direct access to the base's central databank. Once she would be finished with the freighter, this would be her last target before heading toward the command bunker.

She was just getting ready to slide down the other side of the wall when she sensed a lifeform approaching from the center of the compound. A maintenance worker was leisurely ambling toward the landing field, pushing a hoversled filled with several large boxes in front of him. Serina ducked into the shadow of the column beside her until he had passed, then she slid down the line to the bottom of the wall. After a few brisk steps, she reached the back of the shield generator and dropped to her knees behind the central set of half-tires about three times her size in height. Quickly she removed one of the explosive charges and attached it to the metal casing to her right. Then she activated the remote connection and adjusted the frequency.

When she had removed the hatch cracker from her backpack she slipped the still heavy load back onto her shoulders. Then she peered around the far end of the generator toward the freighters. The area was still deserted, although there were now more workers milling around the smaller vessels at the far end of the landing field. After ensuring that nobody approached from the direction of the command bunker or from the main entrance, Serina darted across the open space toward the smaller one of the freighters careful to keep the looming form between her and the work crews.

Once she had reached the ship, an old, battered up YG-4210 light freighter, she tightly hugged the hull and circled it until she arrived at the main hatch. Then she plugged the small decrypting device from Fett's stock into the hatch control panel. With increasing impatience, she waited for the entrance to open, carefully keeping a watchful eye on the maintenance crews in the brightly lit area just a few hundred feet away from her. Finally, a low beep informed her that the code had been cracked. The ramp lowered and the hatch behind it slid to the side. With a fluid motion, Serina slid inside and hit the manual override lever to shut the ramp behind her. Then she hurried toward the cockpit. A quick gaze through the forward viewports confirmed, that nobody had taken any notice of her unauthorized entering the vessel.

With a small sigh of relief, she slipped into the pilot's seat and placed her backpack on her lap. Groping around its contents in the semi-darkness only lit by some stray lights from the maintenance area on the other end of the landing field, she finally pulled out the slicer chip and plugged it into one of the appropriate ports on the cockpit controls. Though she hadn't had much time for the programming, she had been careful to inhibit the activation of any of the displays, since their reflection in the overhead viewports might draw attention to her presence in the freighter. Then it was time again to take patience and wait for the device to complete its task. When she caught herself drumming her fingers on the controls in front of her, she forced herself into a short meditation, purging the anxiety and impatience from her mind.

"Enter code word!" the computer finally announced, confirming that her programming had brought about the desired effect.

"Serina Wanders," she pronounced her name in an even tone and unplugged the slicer chip from the controls. She could only hope that the small freighter was up to the task she had just programmed into it. There was no way to verify it without drawing the attention of the maintenance crews.

As she slipped back out of the ship and sealed the hatch behind her, the sky to the East was already developing the first purple streaks of the approaching morning. Once the sun was up, the chance of staying inconspicuous would diminish drastically unless she had found a means of blending into the crowds of mechanics and guards. And, even without Kota, the Jedi General, around, using the Force was totally out of the question with the clone of her master's former apprentice so close by. She could only hope that with the young captain present, who had so surprisingly captured the heart of the callous assassin, he would be distracted enough to not notice her presence, even if she slipped up occasionally.

* * *

Getting into the maintenance facility proved much easier than Serina had expected. Apparently, everybody currently awake was working on the small group of starfighters out on the landing field. The building had been deserted, only reddish emergency lights casting a faint glow in the wide corridor that led from the door that had opened at her approach toward the very end of the structure. To her right doorways led into cluttered workshops and through currently lifted roll-up doors back out toward the field beyond. To her left several doors separated smaller rooms from the hallway. At the far end, a winding staircase led upwards to the second floor of the building.

Careful to stay away from the open doorways, Serina opened the first door on her left. The room behind it was lined on three sides with tall deep shelves. In the dim light from the corridor, she recognized various sizes of boxes as well as a large assortment of replacement parts. She pulled the first door shut and advanced to the next one. Another storage room greeted her, this time filled with racks of flight suits, helmets and other equipment designated for the pilots of the small starfighters outside. More storage rooms followed. At the very end of the hallway, she finally discovered a common room with a food dispenser unit and another door opening up into a changing room with refresher compartments on the opposite side. Quickly Serina stepped inside and closed the door behind her. Then she switched on the lights. To her right and to her left, two rows of tall lockers hugged the walls. Several low benches cluttered the middle of the room.

 _This is more like it_ , Serina told herself as she started rummaging through the lockers. It did not take long before she pulled a pair of dark-green pants and a matching shirt out of one of them. Slipping them over her black combat suit and tugging the pants legs into her boots, she donned one of the caps from another locker and completed the attire with one of the belts she had found. She was glad that she had hidden her own one together with the backpack in the high grass behind the building and had only brought her lightsaber and the slicer disc along. After hiding both items in the pouches of the belt, she switched the light back off and made her way through the dimly lit common room back toward the hallway.

Before slipping through the door to continue her search for one of the offices, Serina opened herself up to the living Force around her. Although the presence of Starkiller's clone prohibited her from actively using her abilities to investigate the vicinity around her, she could still perceive the traces all living beings left behind in the undulations of the energy field surrounding them. Those were much weaker than the ripples caused by somebody consciously applying the Force, but, once you knew what to look for, they were just as obvious.

Her caution proved to be appropriate. Two workers had returned from the landing field and were just entering one of the open workshops further down in the building. A quick glance confirmed that the light in the shop at the far end of the hallway had come on. Soft-footed Serina slipped out of the common room and into the nearest storage space leaving the door slightly ajar. With her hand on the lightsaber concealed in her belt, she strained to catch the workers' conversation as they walked past her hiding place.

"... ready for a test flight by noon. I just wished they would also supply all the parts we need to repair them!"

"I guess we just have to improvise again. I worry more about the R2 unit that worked with that ship. It was pretty damaged. And I'm not sure there is another one around to replace it with."

"Yeah, that's going to be a problem, too. At least we don't have to worry about new pilots ..."

Then the door of the common room shut behind them, cutting off the rest of the exchange. The hallway lay as deserted as when Serina had first entered. Except for the two men in the adjacent room, she had sensed nobody in the workshops on the other side. She slipped out of her hiding spot and stepped through the entrance diagonally across from her.

Through the open roll-up door, the bright lights from the work area outside provided a dim illumination of the cluttered room. Large benches and various machines were casting long shadows toward her. Carefully keeping to the cover provided by the equipment in the large room, Serina made her way toward a door she had discovered to her left.

It was just as unlocked as all the others in the building had been so far. Apparently, nobody was worried about the security within the maintenance area. That would certainly change once she got closer to the command bunker in the center of the base. The room itself was small with no light from the outside or the workspace providing any illumination. Serina pulled out her lightsaber and activated it. In its bright orange light, several shelves lining the wall to one side became visible as well as a desk with a computer terminal set in the opposite corner.

This was exactly what she had been looking for. At her touch, the terminal activated and displayed a request for login data. Serina pulled out the slicer chip and inserted it into a matching slot on the side of the terminal. Then it was time for another exercise in patience. As she waited for the program to run its course and grant her access to the main databank, she concentrated again on her perception of the living Force around her. Several more workers had returned from the landing field, but all of them had headed to the common room. Nobody was approaching the office so far. But soon the sun would be up and, with the morning, more workers would arrive and certainly also whoever usually worked at the office she was currently using. Again, an urge to drum her fingers on the surface of the desk overcame her, but she forced herself to stay calm.

Finally, a low chime sounded and the display changed to provide her with a selection of actions. _First things first,_ she reminded herself. She would have to stay inconspicuous until the evening. So she needed official access codes and a valid ID. The detailed plans for the facility and whatever else she needed to free her master she would have to access from a different place. Too much activity from the same terminal might raise unwanted attention.

* * *

With a satisfied smile on her face, Serina stashed her backpack in one of the boxes on the hoversled she had "borrowed" from the maintenance shop. Then she directed it toward the walled-in road connecting the work area with the central portion of the compound. Several workers passed her on the way, but nobody looked twice at the young maintenance worker, let alone questioned her presence on the base. Only a guarded entrance into the command bunker itself would reveal how good the access codes obtained during her search and the fake ID - actually the reactivation of one of her former cover IDs she had discovered as still valid in the databank - were.

But that would have to wait. Her next step would be to place two more of the explosives. A quick glance at the general layout of the facility had revealed to her the perfect locations for them: another of the shield generators on the grounds on the far side of the central structure and a weapons emplacement situated right next to it. And she might also find a nice spot to hide the homing beacon Boba Fett had convinced her to take along right before they had dropped her off.

"Consider it your last resort. It is set to start sending its signal after 48 hours. By then you should long be gone." He did not really have to expound that, should she still be down there after 48 hours, she would most likely either be dead or captured herself. In either case, an attack by the Imperial fleet would truly be the only remaining option. So she had agreed to take it along.

* * *

The mess hall located between temporary quarters and storage facilities was only poorly attended when Serina stepped inside a few hours later. The whole base was clearly dimensioned for much more personal than currently stationed there, certainly, a consequence of the attack Starkiller and General Kato had staged on Kamino just a few days prior. And the young woman counted strongly on the fact that most of the fleet would not approach the base at all. Only those ships requiring repairs or supplies would show up in due time. But it was to be expected that General Kato and others of the leaders would arrive shortly. She could only hope that she had put her plan into action before that happened. One powerful Jedi - if you could call the clone that now - could perhaps be distracted, against two of them she was sure to fail.

She took a seat as far away from the entrance as possible, granting her a good overall view of the mess hall, and considered her next actions as more workers and guards arrived for lunch.

"You must be one of the new ones," an unfamiliar voice intruded on her reflections. A young man, dressed in an outfit similar to her own, had taken the seat across from her and was now staring intently at her. "I'm Raft and who are you?"

"I'm Marisa. And yes, I just got here." Then she dug into the stew she had picked up at the serving counter.

The young man followed her example, but would not let her off the hook so easily. "So where are you from?" he managed to inquire in between bites.

" _Taanab_ ," Serina replied, hoping her curt answer would diminish the young man's interest in a drawn-out conversation.

But it was to no avail. "Heard of that one before: edge of the Inner Rim, farming communities, right?" Serina only nodded and continued to concentrate on her lunch as Raft started into an in-depth account of his own story.

She only listened with half an ear, when suddenly unrest gripped her. Not allowing herself to keep even an unconscious connection to the living Force around her in order to not arouse the clone's attention, she had felt deaf and dulled all morning. But now her instincts were going haywire and her whole body went rigid with the effort it took her to not open herself up to what had become second nature during the past ten years. She cast a furtive glance in the wide of the large mess hall. Then her attention was drawn to the front door. It was just swinging inward and a young couple only much too familiar to her stepped inside: Starkiller and Juno.

The young man across from her had caught her gaze and stopped in mid-sentence turning toward the entrance to discover what had attracted her attention. Then he turned back to Serina and leaning forward he informed her in a conspiratorial, low tone, "Oh, you just got here, you probably don't even know yet: that guy that just came in, that's Starkiller. And the young woman, that's Captain Eclipse. They arrived just yesterday and, if the rumors are correct, they brought a prisoner with them. You will never guess whom! But somebody told me, it's Lord Vader himself, you know, the Sith Lord, the Emperor's right-hand man. And they said that Starkiller defeated him. Can you believe that?"

Serina had to force herself to assume an unbelieving expression as she purposely centered her whole attention on the young man across from her, while her thoughts were running wild. Had Starkiller sensed her through the Force? Had he gotten a glimpse at her and recognized the agent of his former master whom he had once cooperated with? Why had he showed up just now? Could it truly be just coincidence? "Lord Vader?" she finally managed to reply in the same low tone. "How should that be possible? He is supposed to be sooo powerful."

Out of the corner of her eye, she watched the couple get in line and pick up some of the same stew she had just finished. Then they settled down at one of the tables close to the entrance. Starkiller cast a glance across the wide of the mess hall and the small groups of workers and guards scattered throughout the room. Something seemed to bother him, but he had apparently found nothing out of the ordinary. Then he applied himself to his lunch and turned his attention to the young woman across from him.

Although at first, Serina had considered Raft a nuisance, now she was quite glad for his presence since it had so conveniently hidden her from Starkiller's gaze. Perhaps she could utilize his interest even further and leave the facility without attracting the clone's attention. It was time to move on. There were only a few hours left until nightfall and her list of necessary actions was not getting shorter by just sitting around.


	11. Prison Break

**Prison Break**

(1 BBY)

Serina approached the ramp leading up toward the command bunker pushing the hoversled in front of her and giving the appearance of busily studying her datapad. A nearly deserted storage facility just a few buildings down from the weapons emplacement had proved quite useful for her further activities. After dropping off the boxes she had brought down from the maintenance facility at the other end of the compound, she had stowed her backpack in the far back of one of the deep shelves. Then she had gone in search of a computer terminal. One of the few workers milling around the facility on various assignments of their own had pointed her to the nearest one without asking any further questions. On one of the shelves, she had passed she had discovered a box with the small datapads.

Using the reactivated fake ID, she had quickly hacked into the terminal she had been directed to, using her slicer chip to improve the level of clearance granted to her. Once that was achieved she could download the detailed layout of the command bunker into her datapad. Then she had generated an "assignment" taking her to the three generators powering the ray shields that protected whatever was hidden in the basement of the facility. Of course, right now that protection worked the other way around: not keeping someone out of that area, but keeping someone inside of it. After generating a list of supplies needed for her self-created task, she returned to the hoversled.

Another one of the workers had proved helpful in locating the items she needed and quickly her sled had filled with boxes of various sizes containing cables, power couplings, an assortment of other parts and some diagnostic tools. Once they had gathered everything shown on her list, she had thanked the young man for his help and had started to rearrange the boxes for a better weight distribution. After assuring that nobody was watching her, she had removed her backpack from its hiding place and stowed the contents in one of the larger boxes underneath the components contained therein. After disposing of the backpack, she had headed for the mess hall, leaving the hoversled parked in the shadow of the prefabricated building.

As she had expected nobody had messed with the contents during her quick lunch. After she had rechecked the datapad for her first destination, she had headed for the center of the compound.

The next stage of her plan proved at first much easier than Serina had expected. The rebels were just too confident. Nobody challenged her. The guards at the ramp leading up toward the command bunker were quite lax in checking her ID and the assignment shown on the datapad. They didn't even bother to check the boxes on the sled. Apparently, they were not accustomed to traitors in their midst, much the opposite from what Serina was used to among the Imperials. _Dantooine_ was outside of the space controlled by the Empire, there were no Imperials on the planet itself and, so far, the base had stayed hidden from the searching eyes of the Imperial fleet, as Serina was only too aware of. Therefore, their confidence might be reasonable, and yet it would be their undoing.

From there she entered the underground labyrinth of corridors and diverse rooms using one of the large freight lifts outside of the command bunker itself. The first two of the power generators on her map were easy to locate. Twice she managed to pull off a convincing resemblance of professionality. First scanning the device, then opening some of the maintenance hatches, checking on a power coupling here and scanning another connection there, she finally ran a thorough check using the terminal connected to it. Both times, when an unobserved moment presented itself, she placed one of her explosive charges inside the casing, activating the remote connection and setting it to the desired frequency.

But when she prepped the second generator, she discovered that it was currently in standby mode. It could not be generating one of the staggered shields that had shown up on their scans. Most likely it was used to power a shield around the upper portion of the command bunker and, therefore, the shield projector connected to it had to be directed outwards, probably only projecting a hemispherical, above-ground shield.

The third generator on her list was located inside the bowels of the underground facility, within the ray shield produced by the first generator. It most likely powered the smaller energy curtain securing whatever area they had arrested the Dark Lord in. The third shield they had registered would most likely be limited to the prison cell itself, but it had to be a temporary installation that did not show up on the detailed plans yet. Once she had arrived there, it would be easier to destroy the shield projector itself than to search for its power source.

The map had led her to one of the few entrances into the secured area inside the outermost of the active ray shields. It was created by a larger version of the field disruptor she had brought with her and produced an opening in the shield just large enough for a single person to pass through. Two guards operated the entrance, one outside of the shield, another inside of it.

She parked the hoversled a few meters away from the entrance and approached the young dark-haired man awaiting her with his weapon at the ready. Keeping a relaxed expression on her face that was in stark contrast to the unrest she felt inside, she handed him her datapad. "I have to check out the shield generator. Apparently, there have been some fluctuations in the energy output," she informed him with an air of professionality. "And from what I've heard it would be quite a disaster if the shields failed at the wrong time."

The young man studied the information given on the datapad, then he made a call to check her ID and clearance. Finally, he handed the pad back to her and motioned her to bring the hoversled for his inspection. After poking around in the boxes on top, he had her remove some of them so he could take a look into the larger ones underneath. For a moment, Serina held her breath. Would he discover the explosive charges? But apparently, the young man had little knowledge of technical components and was quickly convinced that the boxes contained what the list on her pad had implied. After she had placed the smaller boxes back onto the sled, the guard activated the field disruptor and motioned her to pass through the generated opening toward the area inside.

Serina had hoped that the guard inside would just send her on her way. But she quickly learned that not all of the rebels were as careless as she had expected them to be after her first few hours at the base. Taking a quick look at her datapad, he showed her which corridor to choose and followed her to her destination. Then he watched her start into her "maintenance routine". By the time, she had opened the side hatch and scanned some of the inner workings of the generator she was convinced that he would not leave until she was finished.

"Would you mind handing me the datapad?" she pointed at the device lying on top of one of the boxes. When the guard handed it to her, she grabbed it slightly awkwardly, allowing it to tumble to the ground. As both of them reached for it, she quickly placed her hand over his. "You don't have to wait around," she informed him with a peculiar tone in her voice while using the Force to instill a strong desire in him to get back to his guard position by the shield. "I don't need supervision, I'm trustworthy."

For a moment, the guard hesitated, then his face took on a peculiar expression. With a casual tone of voice, he repeated after her, "You don't need supervision, you are trustworthy. I will go back to my duty station." Then he handed her the pad, straightened up and turned toward the way they had come. Without looking back, he disappeared down the corridor.

With a small sigh of relief, Serina pushed the smaller boxes aside and reached for the last of the explosive charges. She could only hope that Starkiller was on the other side of the ray shield and had not noticed her use of the Force. She reached inside the generator and placed the charge close to the main power coupling. Then she activated it and set it to the desired frequency.

As she was just getting ready to pull her head back out of the hatch, a sharp call caused her to freeze. "What are you doing there?"

For a moment she cursed her wariness of using the Force. Otherwise, she would have sensed much earlier that somebody had been watching her. Slowly to not cause any rash action on the guard's part, she pulled her head out of the hatch and slightly raised her arms. "I'm just doing my job. You can check my pad."

"I saw what you did. You put something inside. What was it?" He inquired as he inched toward her, careful to keep his blaster trained on her.

Desperately Serina searched for a way out without having to rely on the Force. But she had to be quick before he could call for reinforcements. Yielding to the inevitability of the situation, she allowed the strong emotions permanently encased inside her soul to permeate her, granting her easier access to the living energy field around her. Using the Force now readily at her command, her left hand reached for the young man and slowly tightened into a fist, grabbing his throat and choking him, rendering him unable to call for help. At the same time, her right hand motioned toward the blaster. She jerked it from his hands toward her and plucked it out of the air. A sharp twist with her left hand and the body of the young man went limp in her grasp. She allowed him to gently slide to the ground, catching his helmet before it could bounce off the floor; then she listened into the corridor he had come from. But no sound was to be heard. A glance at her datapad indicated a small storage room just a few meters from the generator.

The young guard was heavier than she had expected, but the precarious situation gave her additional strength, even without relying on the Force. Once inside, she stripped him of his clothes and pushed the body underneath the bottom shelf. Since the base was only marginally staffed, it would be unlikely that somebody discovered him in the coming hours.

She stuffed the clothes, helmet, and blaster in one of the boxes on her hoversled and closed the hatch on the generator. A quick glance around confirmed that nothing hinted at what had just happened. Then she pushed her sled down the corridor leading further toward the location of the innermost shield they had registered during their scouting run.

Soon her path was blocked by another guard, this time a young woman, at the most eighteen, nineteen years of age. Behind her the opalescent surface of the second shield was visible. At the far end of the corridor, Serina noticed four more guards, two to each side of a set of heavy blast doors. There was no doubt in her mind as to what lay behind that closely-guarded entrance. She had found the prison cell at last.

* * *

A short time later, she reemerged from the labyrinth on the freight platform right between the wall surrounding the command bunker and the outside wall of the compound. The sun was already drawing close to the horizon. The female guard had helped her find her way back to the surface without becoming suspicious, but she did not want to move too far away from the command bunker. Leisurely pushing the hoversled past the large building to the right of the platform, she cast furtive glances in all directions. Nobody was watching her. It was dinner time and most of the workers would be at the mess hall already.

When she rounded the far end of the building, she discovered a gap between the backside of the structure and the wall encircling the compound. It was just wide enough to push the hoversled through.

Slipping out of her maintenance attire, she pulled the uniform of the dead guard over her black battle suit. Then she used her own belt since it would be covered by the black combat vest. She slipped her lightsaber into one of the large trouser pockets, the rest of her gadgets into the other one. Then she contacted Boba Fett with the prearranged signal, transmitting only a single number: 1900.

The last time she consulted her datapad with the detailed map of the underground facility. Besides the two entries she had used to get past the first shield, there were only two other locations where the shield cut across some corridor. One of them was a small side passage, apparently not much larger than a crawl space. It would bring her directly into the vicinity of the last generator she had worked on. She would access it from a subsurface corridor that started at the foot of the transport platform and circled all the way around the command bunker. During her "check-up" of the first generator, she had instructed it to not report any fluctuations during the following twenty-four hours. Therefore, her use of the field disruptor should go unnoticed.

* * *

1855\. A glance at her chronometer confirmed that the first strafing run should take place any moment now. The cloaking devices would ensure that both ships would be noticed much too late. By the time the rebels tried to raise their shields, the first three explosions would take out the shield generators and one of the weapons emplacements.

The last time Serina checked her equipment. The lightsaber was now easily accessible at her belt, the dead guard's blaster slung over her left shoulder. Although she did not expect to need the shield disruptor anymore, she opted on keeping it in one of the belt pouches. The rest of the devices stayed easy reachable in her trouser pockets.

Then she slipped out of the small supply room where she had deposited the body of the dead guard just little over an hour prior. Soft-footed she advanced to the end of the corridor. The young female guard would be only a few meters to her right where the second shield crossed the corridor leading from the prison cell back to the transport platform.

A low tremor vibrated through the foundations of the compound. The attack had started. Three simultaneous detonations caused the corridor ceiling above Serina to rain down billows of fine particles, cracks formed in the concrete used to plaster the underground passages. With a firm grip on her blaster, Serina rushed around the corner and waved to the young woman ahead of her. "I need your support. There are intruders at the generator," she called to her in a commanding tone. Then she turned on her heels and headed back the way she had come, the female guard quickly catching up to her.

Behind the next bend, she stopped abruptly and slammed the butt of her weapon into the young woman running behind her. Then she whipped around and pointed her blaster at the girl cowering on the ground before her, looking up at her with an incredulous, betrayed expression on her face. With her foot, Serina pushed the young guard's blaster out of reach. For a moment, her conscience caused her to hesitate, but then she shook her head, clearing away the uninvited thoughts. It was not her fault that the young woman had joined the rebels. But she would make it quick.

Leaving the body of the dead girl behind, Serina rushed back to the end of the corridor. Then she activated the charge inside the generator. First, a low rumble could be heard in the corridor behind her; then a massive blast followed, as the generator itself exploded. Quickly Serina stepped around the corner toward the spot where just moments earlier the shield had blocked the passage. The same moment, the lights went out and the explosion wave reached the mouth of the corridor. In the dim light of the emergency lighting that came on only seconds later, Serina spotted the guards at the heavy blast doors weapons at the ready, pointing at her. But her guard uniform caused them to hesitate just a moment too long. Serina leveled her blaster at them and took down the first two with quick successive shots.

As the remaining guards returned her fire, she reached for her lightsaber and opened herself to the Force. Deflecting the bolts heading her way into the walls and floor, she covered the remaining meters. Then she was upon them and, spinning around between them, dispatched the last guards with a precise slash of her weapon.

A glance back into the direction she had come from confirmed that she was alone in the corridor. Most of the guards would be busy with defending the facility. Hopefully, it would take them a long time to discover that the whole attack was just a diversion. She had advised Boba and Caaroq to produce enough chatter that the rebels would assume they were just the advance party for a whole fleet ready to drop out of hyperspace.

The blast doors proved more trouble than Serina had expected. The locking mechanism was secured by some code and hooked up to its own power supply. After she attached her hatch cracker to the activation pad, she started cutting an alternative entrance into the durasteel in front of her with her lightsaber. Constantly keeping her senses trimmed on the corridor behind her, she listened for the explosions of the two remaining generators. Boba would set them off only if the _Rogue Shadow_ had lifted off, hopefully with Starkiller on board.

A low sound from the hatch cracker informed her that the doors were no longer blocked by the locking mechanism. But the power was still down. Serina reached deeper into the strong emotions at her center, fanning them with her anger at the degrading situation she expected to find her master in. Then she reached with her mind for the heavy doors and started pushing them aside. At first, there was some resistance, but then the left one slid aside, giving her a view of the innermost energy shield.

And inside of it, a huge restraining harness held upright by a massive durasteel construction, which was attached to heavy carriers on the ceiling and the floor. It sported three thick magna locks that encased thighs, waist, and chest of the figure within, pinning his arms tightly to his body. His helmet was encased in a cage, keeping him arrested to look straight ahead and slightly downward. The faint hum of the energy field pervaded the air, preventing him effectively from calling on the Force.

The whole room was only lit by the light from her lightsaber as she slowly moved along the walls in search of the shield projector, careful not to get too close to the curtain of pure energy. When she arrived back at the door, she realized that the projector could not be hidden in the walls of the prison cell. As she raised her lightsaber to illuminate the space above her captive master, she finally discovered what she had been searching for. But how to get to it? She had to be quick. Her master was watching. He had to realize that is was her. Already the color of her lightsaber should have convinced him. And yet he had not so much as said a word to her.

In the distance, the sound of two new explosions could be heard, then the ground underneath her feet shook violently. The _Rogue Shadow_ had finally joined the fight above the facility. But time was getting short. They had only minutes left to leave the base before the ruse would become obvious.

Again, she concentrated on her darkest desires for the man in front of her, allowing them to wash over her and grant her access to the powers of the dark side. Then she threw her lightsaber upward, using the Force to direct it toward the spot in the ceiling where the shield originated. Once it contacted with the concrete, she pushed her blade further into the material until it reached the inner workings of the projector. With a hissing sound, the shield around the harness collapsed and her lightsaber dropped back to the ground. Before it could hit, Serina caused it to fly back into her outstretched hand. Immediately, it reignited. Apparently, the magna locks were hooked to a separate power source since they hadn't opened yet. But a precise cut through the durasteel structure they were connected to should solve that problem.

But first, she would have to get rid of the cage around his head. It also sported a much smaller energy field, powered by a separate generator inside the harness. As long as it was in place, it effectively prevented Vader from drawing on the Force. Once it was removed, he would certainly make short work of the remaining restraints.

An inspection of the backside of the harness in the light of her weapon quickly revealed the fastest way of doing just that. As she plunged her lightsaber into the base of the construction, a bright electrical fire erupted from the small generator concealed in the heavy foot of the harness. She could feel the fierce anger coursing through the man beside her, as he reached for the Force, pressing outward against his durasteel encasing. At the same time, Serina swept her lightsaber upwards cutting sideways through the frame behind the magna locks. With an angry roar, Vader reached for the cage around his helmet and tore it from its socket. Then he pushed his massive form out of the now unlocked harness and dropped to his feet.

Serina stepped in front of him and removed the guard helmet still on her head. Then she dropped to her knee and presented him her lightsaber. "We need to hurry, master. More of the rebel fleet might arrive any moment now. I have secured a freighter to get off-planet. We will rendezvous with Boba Fett and the _StarLady_ a few systems away."

"Where is Starkiller?" he inquired as he took the weapon out of her hand.

"Occupied. Or I would not have had a chance. But we are getting company." She could sense more guards approaching.

"Then come," he ordered and stalked out of the cell casually dispatching two of the three guards that had just reached the blast doors with Serina's lightsaber. The last one was thrown back against the corridor wall, struck by a well-aimed shot from her blaster.

A few moments later and after having eliminated several more guards on the way, they reached the freight platform. The night above their heads was lighted up by the discharges of laser cannons, mounted on the ships as well as somewhere on the compound, but the wide space directly below the elevated command bunker was deserted. Serina took over the lead and together they rushed toward the landing field. By the time they reached the backward portion of the compound, several pursuers were running after them and a vessel, Serina remembered only too well, disengaged from the fight above and took a swooping dive toward them. Starkiller! Had he finally figured out that the attack had only been a ruse, designed to lure him off planet so somebody could release his former master? Ducking out of the way of impacts caused by discharges from the ship's lasers, they entered the open area of the landing field.

The small freighter was the only vessel left with the rest of the large area cloaked in deep darkness. Even the lights of the watchtowers had been turned off to not provide additional targets for the attackers. Upon her voice command, the hatch opened and the ramp lowered in front of them. As they stormed onboard and closed the hatch behind them, the first blaster bolts from the guards struck the hull of the small vessel.

Allowing Vader to take the pilot's seat, Serina slipped into the second seat in the cockpit and hit the activation switch. As the pre-programmed start sequence was executed by the ship's computer, the shields went up first. And just in time. The small vessel shook violently as well-aimed shots from the _Rogue Shadow_ hit home. The shields held, but just barely. If they didn't get off the ground soon their escape would be quite short lived. With a deep throbbing, the engines of the freighter started and Serina was pressed into her seat as Vader forced the vessel into an emergency lift-off.

By the time the _Rogue Shadow_ returned for another run at the freighter, they had already left the area of the compound and were heading toward open space. As they passed the melee of smaller starfighters and the slightly larger shapes of the _StarLady_ and _Slave I,_ Boba Fett and Caaroq disengaged and followed their vessel.

But Starkiller was not about to let his prominent captive escape so easily. And the freighter was no match for the agile Imperial transport. As Serina completed the programming for their jump to hyperspace, the _Rogue Shadow_ was already hot on their heels. Only Vader's unpredictable maneuvers, putting the small vessel through turns and twists it was never designed for, prevented further damage to the weakened shields. Caaroq used the _StarLady_ to provide some cover, taking some of the hits intended for the freighter, but she was not Serina and her control of the Baudo-Class vessel was no match for the experienced captain at the controls of the _Rogue Shadow_.

Suddenly, the space in front of them was cluttered with various ships just dropped back from hyperspace. General Kota and some of the rebel fleet had arrived at last. Vader barely managed to adjust the flight path of their vessel enough to not hit the capital ship that blocked their way. Instead, he slipped the freighter in between two of the frigates. Further maneuvers followed as he forced the small vessel to skim over and under the larger capital ships. Caaroq tried to follow suit but soon resigned to just turning on the cloaking device and slipping out of the crowded space unnoticed. The _Rogue Shadow_ , however, stayed hot on their heels, matching each of Vader's maneuvers with ease, yet refraining from using its laser cannons in the close vicinity of the rebel ships.

Finally, they emerged on the far side of the bulk and Vader pushed the lever of the hyperdrive. But as the engines roared in preparation of the jump, the weapons of the _Rogue Shadow_ connected a final time. The shields failed and a jolt went through the whole ship, slamming Serina forward in her restraints. An electric discharge rippled across the navicomp and the lights in the cockpit went out. But the jump could not be stopped. The stars turned to streaks and within seconds merged to the blur of hyperspace.


	12. A Credit for a Thought

**A Credit for a Thought**

(1 BBY)

"There's a small island down there, master. Will we be able to make it?" Serina's voice reflected the pain the electrical surges had inflicted on her. And yet she had managed to elicit further information from the nearly dead sensors although each touch of the sensor scopes caused another discharge to arc into her. The air in the cockpit was already filled with dense smoke, causing the young woman to be wracked by severe coughing fits. Briefly, envy for her master's emergency oxygen supply flashed through her mind, but she did not allow it to linger.

With steady hands, he was guiding the resistive and failing vessel into a dive toward the small speck of land now becoming visible ahead of them. "We will, but you better brace yourself for the impact."

Again, the small ship shuddered, the screeching noise of metal tearing apart echoed through the cockpit, then the ship listed heavily to one side. Vader barely managed to level it back to an upright position, before he veered the whole vessel sharply around to allow it to slow down on the last few hundred meters by riding on its own exhaust particles. With the repulsors gone as a result of the last hit they had taken, it was the only way to attempt a landing they might survive. But the vessel surely wouldn't. And he was not certain if Serina would either.

A few meters above the rocky surface of the small island, the damage the reflected particles caused within the ion drive reached the tolerance limit. The engine shut off and the ship dropped the last meters like a rock onto its exhaust ports. Serina was slammed into her seat. Then the whole seat tore loose of its mount and crashed through the open cockpit doors down to the wall of the common room. Vader himself had managed to hang on to the controls with an iron grip. In slow motion, the freighter tilted forward and, after a few drawn-out seconds of hanging sheer motionless in midair, crashed down into a vertical position.

With quick, practiced moves he switched off the rest of the ship's power. Then he swiftly got up and strode toward the common room behind the cockpit. The sight that greeted him met his worst expectations. The seat had shattered on impact. Serina's twisted form was lying unmoving between the debris. Small puddles of blood were forming below her right shoulder and her left leg. For a second he was reminded of the twisted form of Juno Eclipse lying at the edge of the platform on _Kamino_ and the desperate expression on Starkiller's face, as the clone had fought his anguish, thinking he had lost her. It was still a minor miracle that the young woman had survived.

But she had and so would Serina. He would see to it. His young protégé had risked her life to free him out of the rebels' hands, something he had not seriously considered possible. Her abilities were no match at all for the powers at the clone's command. And yet, she had somehow pulled it off. It would be interesting to find out how she had accomplished it. Doing everything in his power to save her was the least he could do to return the effort and preserve one of his most valuable assets.

But first, they had to get off the ship. Something had caught fire during their jump through hyperspace; the smoke in the cockpit had been proof of that. Apparently, the flames had been extinguished during their rapid descent toward the island. But they might rekindle any moment, possibly causing the whole freighter to explode.

After grabbing one of the medpacs from a locker next to the cockpit doors, he pushed his arms under Serina's limp form. A moan escaped her lips and a shudder went through her, but she remained unconscious. From the unnatural direction, her right arm hung from her body, something in her shoulder had torn, probably caused by the shard poking out from underneath her collarbone. Blood was also dripping from her left leg where the broken shin bone had pierced through the skin.

The hatch had jammed during the impact, but it did not resist his mind's push for more than a short moment. The ship had come to rest on some sort of ledge, the exit now several meters above the rocky surface. With Serina's unmoving form secure in his arms, the Dark Lord jumped down to the ground, using the Force for a smooth landing, avoiding further jolts to her badly injured body. Then he bored his path through the rock-strewn landscape until he had reached a safe distance from the damaged freighter.

He gently deposited Serina between the rocks on the most level place he could find. Using the Force to lift her off the ground, he spread out his own cloak under her unmoving form. After tearing strips of material from the uniform top she was still wearing, he stripped away several inches of the trousers and the battle suit underneath on her left leg. Then he set the bone and applied a large bacta patch to the wound. After wrapping the makeshift bandages firmly around her calf to form a sort of cast, he gingerly placed her leg back on the ground.

Next, he lifted her upper body and tore away enough material from her clothes until he could reach the piece of duraplast sticking from her shoulder. With a swift jerk, he pulled it out. After applying two more bacta patches to the cuts below her shoulder in front and back, he lowered her gently back to the ground, placing her right arm tight against her side. Then he wrapped the cloak firmly around her unconscious form.

After having accomplished everything he could do for her at that moment, Vader headed back to the freighter. Perhaps there would be some more items to salvage from the wreck before the ship blew to pieces.

As he rummaged through the twisted and broken wreckage, he allowed his thoughts to replay the events from right before Serina had shown up so unexpectedly in his prison cell.

 _Anger, rage, hate: emotions he had learned to hone, to turn into a weapon. Drawing on the Force through them had granted him a power beyond anything he had ever considered possible as a young Padawan, as a grown Jedi or even when he had found out that the man, who had befriended him since his childhood days, was in truth the Sith Lord they had been searching for. The day he had become his apprentice he had gotten the first glimpse of that power, but it had taken years to reach the level of mastery he now had. And he still had not achieved enough power to eliminate his master, to fulfill his destiny, to bring peace to the galaxy as he had always envisioned._

 _But no matter how fierce those emotions had raged in his soul at that very moment, no matter how great a power they would usually have granted him, he had been powerless just then, utterly powerless. Tied up like a wild animal in bonds that even his enhanced physical strength could not overcome, enclosed by energy fields that prevented his connection to the Force, that kept him from breaking free of the degrading position, he had hung suspended in the air, usually in darkness, although that had bothered him the least of all._

 _The life-support functions of his bodysuit would sustain him for many weeks: he had recently replenished the vitapaste and all the systems of his suit had just been recharged. The slash to his chest box that Captain Eclipse had inflicted, had only been superficial and all systems had recovered from Starkiller's Force-lightning attacks._

 _He had reflected that if the rebels were waiting for him to give in and reveal anything at all, they would have a long disappointing wait ahead of them. That it might take some time for the Emperor to find out what had happened. And that despite any disagreement they might have had in the recent past, his master would certainly seek to free him out of the rebels' hands. That, after all, Darth Sidious always preferred to mete out punishment for his apprentice himself. And that, if his master discovered the purpose of his cloning experiments, he could certainly expect a harsh punishment at the Emperor's hands. But he would survive his master's displeasure, he always had, and it would make him even stronger than before, it always had done that as well._

 _It had been the second day at the rebel base. Captain Eclipse and his former apprentice had been very diligent to not reveal to him the exact location. Heavily guarded and under the constant attention of the clone, who he had hoped would finally give him an advantage over the Emperor, they had transferred him secured tightly in the restraining harness from the_ Rogue Shadow _to the basement of their facility right after their arrival. Then the lights had gone out and he had been forced to wait, alone with his own thoughts and the emotions boiling in his dark soul. He had continued to wait for some power failure, some fluctuation that would grant him a slight chance at escaping, but to no avail._

 _Then he had felt the low vibration of several detonations and moments later another explosion close by. Although the heavy blast doors shielded him from most outside noises, the enhanced senses of his mask had picked up some blaster discharges and the typical low hum of a lightsaber. When only moments later, the tip of a bright orange blade had started cutting an entrance into one side of the heavy blast doors, he had allowed the first flicker of hope to rise that he would not have to wait on the Emperor to free him. Only a short time later, the other one of the two doors had been pushed aside and a young guard, whom he quickly identified as his own young protégé, had stepped into the prison cell._

 _From that moment, it had not taken long and he had been free of the harness and they had rushed toward the small freighter Serina had prepared for their escape. Getting away from the planet had proved a challenge in the sluggish, only weakly shielded vessel, and yet they had managed to cut through the bulk of the rebel fleet that had just returned and had managed the jump to hyperspace._

 _But the last blast from the_ Rogue Shadow _had reached them just at that instant. It had overloaded the navicomp and redirected the jump. Although it had retained the approximate distance Serina had programmed into the system, it had taken them in a totally different direction, dumping them back to realspace outside of the_ Outer Rim _, in the midst of several uncharted systems._

 _During the last minutes in hyperspace, smoke had started to pour into the cockpit and it had become obvious quickly that they would not be getting much further in the damaged vessel. The sensor scopes had been plagued by some overload as well, but Serina had been willing to bear the electrical discharges to acquire at least some rudimentary information about the space around them. She had managed to even send out an emergency signal in the direction they knew Caaroq and Boba Fett would be waiting for them and they had approached the nearest of the planets that appeared habitable on the preliminary scans._

 _Then the crash landing and now they were stranded on this lifeless rock of an island. Vader could only hope that the signal had reached Caaroq and the bounty hunter and that they would be successful in their search for the missing freighter. If all else failed, he would try to contact the Emperor through the Force, but that was not an option he was too anxious to invoke. It would spell out punishment and dire consequences for him. And he wasn't keen on experiencing any of that._

He had not sensed any of the fires rekindling during his rummaging in the wrecked vessel. But it would be safer to stay outside of it. Night was soon to fall, but, except for a drop in temperature, there were no dangers on this forsaken planet. He had brought some canisters of water, a few meager food rations, and some blankets as well as another medpac and deposited them beside the young woman. One of the blankets he placed under her head, the other he spread across her unmoving form.

Then he settled down beside her, for the first time taking stock of his own condition. All his systems worked as expected, but there were some cuts and tears in the body suit. Only one of them had managed to penetrate down to his skin, but the suit had sealed quickly and any pain from the cut just blended in with what he had learned to endure since _Mustafar_. Although his anger at the defeat on _Kamino_ and the events that had followed still raged in his soul, another emotion was starting to mingle with it, an emotion he seldom had reason to experience and, even if a situation would warrant it, even more seldom allowed: gratefulness.

It was an emotion not appropriate at all for a Dark Lord of the Sith, but his master was far away and for once he did not deny what he felt regarding Serina's action. He had not expected it and yet she had taken it upon herself to free him. And against all odds, she had managed to achieve her goal.

His gaze fell upon the unconscious form beside him. The only sound of the past hours had been a low moan every now and then, the only movement from time to time a weak shudder of the whole body. Now he noticed sweat drops forming on her brow and a slight trembling of her torso. A quick check with the sensors built into this mask confirmed that Serina had started to develop a high fever. Apparently, there had been more damage on the inside, perhaps some ruptured organs. And having been knocked unconscious by the crash, there had been no way for her to invoke any form of healing meditation. If he did not find a way to reach her mind and shake her from unconsciousness, she would most likely die within a few days, if not hours.

For a long moment, he considered the predicament. Then he removed her uninjured arm from within the cloak. He moved to a different position so her hand would come to rest on his bodysuit just in the spot where the metal fragment had pierced the material during the crash. The suit had resealed but the tear was easily reopened. It was just wide enough to slip her hand underneath to establish a direct contact with his skin.

The moment the connection was established, he could sense the heat emanating from her body, her innate abilities attempting to transfer it away from her and into him. Using the Force to follow the physical contact into her mind, he persuaded her subconscious to initiate a healing trance, drawing on the Force to heal her body of the severe damage occurred during the crash. As the heat continued to radiate into his leg and upward into the rest of his body, he could feel her slipping into a calmer state of mind as she opened herself to the Force and allowed it to accelerate the healing process.

The hours stretched on. Night fell on the rocky island. Only few constellations lighted the skies of the planet currently facing away from the star-filled center of the galaxy. As the heat from Serina's touch slowly diminished, Vader could sense her mind resurfacing from the dreamless depth of the past hours to a lighter form of sleep. As he concentrated on the sensations passed unwittingly into him by the same ability she purposely applied during their sexual interaction, he allowed himself to withdraw from the physical reality around him and to plunge into the surreal world of dreams, memories, and visions chasing through her subconscious mind...

 _Leaving the last of the capital ships behind them, they emerged from the bulk of the rebel fleet and Vader activated the hyperdrive. Just as the stars elongated, a powerful impact pressed her into her restraints. Electrical discharges danced over the surface of the navicomp and leaped into her hands. Instinctively she used the Force to prevent the currents from damaging her inner organs, but the burns on her hands were smarting none the less. Moments later she started to cough as smoke was filling the cockpit. Then they dropped back to realspace. Again, she forced her aching hands to touch the sensor scopes, again the currents seared her fingers, but she managed to retrieve some further data, information that would improve their chances of survival._

 _Then they were approaching the planet. "Brace yourself for the impact." And she did, but then the chair tore loose and she was falling ... falling ... blackness engulfed her..._

 _...when she opened her eyes, her hands went instinctively to the large bulge on her abdomen. As she looked downward, blood was gushing out of a long and deep cut. She sensed inward, but then despair overcame her. The baby was no longer moving, its presence in the Force diminishing. She rolled over and pushed herself to her knees, then to her feet. The hatch of the escape pod had warped and would not open, but the fear of losing the baby caused her to reach deep into the Force and wrench it from its frame. As she slipped down to the bright sand dunes below, a city became visible in the distance and a landspeeder rushing toward her ... and passed her..._

 _...the damaged fighter disappeared in the distance. Her gaze returned to the two unmoving forms in front of her. Despair filled her heart; tears started streaking down her face. Then the call from a guard drew her attention back to the returning vessel. Despair turned into fierce rage as she screamed her pain toward it. Then she grabbed the blaster from the ground and fired shot after shot into the ship, instinctively using the Force to guide them to the weakest spot in the shields. The vessel crashed and exploded, scattering debris and preprocessed grain all around her._

 _Then she was staring into an older man's face. Her father, the resemblance was not to be overlooked. He smiled up at her, his eyes full of love and forgiveness. Feelings of guilt and shame mingled with deep love and sadness welled up in her ... then the face morphed..._

 _...it grew older, hairless, scarred, with flaky lips and scorched blue eyes, encased in a metal construction from the chin downward ... but the expression stayed the same, the smile warm and loving. The feelings in her deepened, a warm sensation rolled over her, but at the same time, a deep despair filled her. With an awareness of imminent loss, she caressed the unblemished cheek with her hand and bowed down to place a gentle kiss on the ravished lips for the last time..._

...Serina's mind slipped back down into the dreamless depth of the healing trance and Vader returned to the reality around him. Most of what he had just experienced had been memories, her mind associating the most recent events with occurrences of the past. But what had that been at the very end? It could not have been a memory. The face he had readily recognized. It was the same face that stared back at him whenever he sat in his meditation chamber and became aware of his own reflection in the screens.

But the expression reflected emotions that were no longer a part of him, had not been in the past eighteen years. They had died with Padmé and with the man he had once been, a man full of weakness and fear, a man who had not known the powers of the dark side, who had been afraid of the dragon living within him, a man who no longer existed. So, what of her dream? Had it been wishful thinking, just reflecting her desires?

He was aware that she had strong feelings for him. They had not wavered during the past eleven years despite all the actions she had become aware of or even become a part of herself. And yet he had, at times, wondered what would happen if she ever found out what the Emperor had ordered him to do right after becoming his apprentice to achieve the full powers of the dark side. Would her reaction be the same as Padmé's had been? He would have to eliminate her in that case. But he preferred to keep her abilities available to him, so it was preferable if she never discovered the truth.

Especially, since she had never fully given herself to the dark side, at least, not yet. She would draw on it without hesitation if it became necessary, but that was as far as she went. And as long as she lacked any desire for true power, the path of the Sith would be barred for her.

Then he thought back to what he had seen in her mind. Her desires truly lay elsewhere, deeply connected with her feelings for him. It would be understandable if she wished for them to be returned in like manner. But that would never happen. And yet, why the sensation of despair and imminent loss? Had it been more than wishful thinking, perhaps a glimpse of some utterly unlikely future?

* * *

Minutes stretched into hours and hours into days. Although Serina had barely so much as moved in the past day and a half, she had clearly stabilized. Her temperature was close to normal and her presence in the Force no longer troubled but closer to the apparently serene, yet always simmering state she had acquired in the past few years.

The freighter had not blown up as he had expected at first, but it was without power now. He had gone back several times and had salvaged one of the generators. If he managed to repair it, perhaps he could establish a contact with the _StarLady_ or _Slave I_.

The emergency signal they had managed to transmit shortly after their return to realspace had quit when the comm unit had died with the rest of the systems. But he knew Caaroq to be quite diligent and the bounty hunter would not give up easily either. After all, he would still want to collect his reward for bringing Starkiller to _Kamino_. And according to one of Serina's remarks shortly after entering hyperspace, she had also promised him some payment for aiding her in the accomplished escape.

But there had been several systems in the vicinity of their exit point. Even if Caaroq and the bounty hunter had located the origin of the emergency signal, they would have to check each of the planets close enough to be reached by the freighter's sublight engines. And that would take time.

He would give them at least a whole week before he resorted to contacting the Emperor directly. His bodysuit would sustain him much longer than that and with Serina slowly mending there were enough supplies to last her for that time as well. If he could repair the generator and use it to boost the signal of the comlink built into his bodysuit, he might even be able to shorten the wait significantly.

As their second evening on the rocky, lifeless island closed in and darkness fell around them Vader settled down again beside Serina's sleeping form. He slipped her hand back into the tear in his bodysuit and re-established the physical contact. Then he waited patiently for her mind to plunge into the next episode of memories and dreams, curious at what new insights he might gain into the mind of his protégé...

 _...Rain was pouring down around her as she peered toward the roof of the spire. The scene had a strange sensation to it as if there was a double layer to the memories it had risen from. Starkiller was kneeling in front of his former master, forced into submission by the threat to the young captain now lying a few feet away, discarded like a superfluous puppet. But she was not about to let the clone give up just out of fear for her life. As she got to her feet and slashed one of Starkiller's lightsabers toward the Dark Lord's back, only his sharp turn toward her with the lightning speed born of the Force avoided harm above the minor damage to the chest box._

 _With a powerful shove through the Force, Vader pushed the young woman far past the edge of the roof. Only Starkiller's grasp for her prevented her from plunging into the depth between the buildings. But there was still the drop_ _down toward the next platform_ _. The two layers suddenly diverged: while one depicted her body slamming unchecked to the surface, in the other Serina stretched out her hand and used the Force to cushion the fall just enough to ensure the young woman's survival. Then she placed her in a hibernation trance, her mind determined to end the girl's life should the clone decide to end her master's. For a time, the roof was filled with twirling blades of light, two blue and one scarlet. First, it seemed as if Vader would prevail, but then Starkiller sent a whole barrage of Force-lightning into his former master until the scene had changed radically. Now Vader was kneeling at the mercy of his own lightsaber in the clone's hands. As Serina concentrated her whole self onto willing Starkiller to realize that the young captain had survived and to refrain from killing his former master, the two layers of the dream merged into one..._

 _...but it was no longer Vader kneeling at the mercy of the clone he himself had created but a white-haired, bearded man with a once haughty expression now turned to helpless desperation kneeling in front of a young Jedi Knight, a red and a blue blade crossed at his throat. "Kill him, now," a voice from out of nowhere commanded. The young man hesitated at first; but not for long. As the blades uncrossed like huge scissors and the headless torso slumped to the ground, the head rolled away from the feet of the murderer..._

 _...but it was no longer the head of the dead Sith Lord that came to rest at the feet of a young naval cadet, who was barely able to tear his eyes away from the expression of defiance mingled with despair frozen on the face of his dead uncle, as he walked toward the Dark Lord as ordered. Then Serina stepped to her master's side. "Allow me to finish it," she told him._

 _Then the large hall was deserted except for the two young cadets. As Serina turned away from Rogards to follow her master outside, he dove for the blaster still clutched in his dead uncle's cut-off hand. But he was no match for Serina at all. Only moments later, she sent his blaster spinning away with a flick of her lightsaber. Then she plunged her blade straight into his heart..._

 _...but the face looking down incredulous at the lightsaber hilt pressed against his throat was the face of a much older man, bald with a prominent tattoo on the right side of his head. As the blue plasma chewed upward and burned away his life, the black clad figure holding the blade told him, "You have no idea..."_

 _...then the scene changed again. The young man in the black attire, hood pulled deep into his face, entered a large circular room lined with a row of form-fitting chairs. Young boys and girls emerged from their hiding places and approached the figure, apparently quite familiar with the face underneath the hood. But they never had a chance: their training lightsabers no match for his blade, their barely developed fighting abilities no match for his long years of intensive combat. But they tried and for an instant, his blade locked with one of the training weapons..._

 _...but it was no longer in the hands of a youngling. The serene council chamber in the Jedi Temple had given place to the eerie surroundings of a lava stream. Two figures on opposite ends of a small skiff, blue lightsabers twirling between them. Then the older of the two jumped to higher ground. Shortly later the black clad younger man followed. Serina's heart cried out in anguish as a swift stroke of the older man's lightsaber severed one arm and both legs. The young man fell hard to the ground, sliding down toward the edge of the lava river. As he looked up at his opponent, face torn in agony and fierce rage, eyes turned yellow with the dark side coursing through him, flames erupted from his clothes, consuming every hair on his body, fusing fabric and skin into one burned layer, searing over the unprotected skin of his face. When the flames finally died out, the charred remains of what had once been a young man turned onto his back, staring unseeing into a burning sky as Serina's perception concentrated on the marred features..._

 _...but as she drew even closer the skin turned to a chalky white, the eyes no longer blazing with yellow, but gazing back at her in a burnished light blue, deep scars marring the right cheek and the top of the hairless head. Below the chin, a metal construction rested on a heavy collar around his neck. The light no longer the burning red of_ Mustafar _'s lava covered landscape, but the dim reflection of the inside of the meditation chamber. As Serina reached her hand to gently touch the unblemished side of his face, a hot wave of emotions swept through her, affection mingled with the cravings of a much more bodily need, a dark desire to possess and be possessed, to become one physically and emotionally, to reach a level of fulfilment beyond the limits of any mere sexual act. Then she hurled herself into the dark abyss of emotions that filled the soul of the man in front of her..._

...Once again Serina's mind retreated into the dreamless depth of the healing meditation. As Vader got up to return to the freighter in search of replacement parts for the generator, he pondered what he had learned from her dreams.

* * *

By the time, the sun had passed its peak and started to descend toward the horizon, Vader had managed to replace enough of the damaged components to coax the first still fluctuating power currents from the generator. It would take some more adjusting and perhaps even further replacements before he could connect it to his comlink, but he was confident that he would get finished before nightfall.

In order to establish a connection to Caaroq or Boba Fett without drawing unwanted attention from anyone else - the rebels and, first and foremost, Starkiller and General Kota, who would certainly be searching for them as well -, he required the frequency Serina had set the emergency signal to. Her healing process should have progressed far enough that he could raise her from her trance without a risk to her recovery. And there were quite a few questions her last dream episode had given rise to. Certainly, her dreams had reflected only a small portion of what she truly knew about him. The time had come to find out the full scope of her knowledge.

Again, he settled down beside her and slipped her hand through the tear in his bodysuit. Just as he started to reach through the physical connection to touch her mind, he became aware of her gently moving fingers against his skin. A glance down at her face confirmed that it was no longer necessary to raise her from the healing trance. She was gazing up at him with a thankful and at the same time curious expression on her face. Through her touch, he could feel the pain still present in her body, the throbbing of her broken leg, the aching of the many bruises and of the deep cut in her shoulder. Now that she was awake, she could take care of those directly. The healing trance had primarily stopped the inner bleedings and had restored her organs to their proper function.

Aware of the pain she was passing into him through her touch, Serina started to withdraw her hand from the bodysuit. But Vader stopped her. "Don't." As he placed his gloved hand over hers to ensure the physical contact between them, her expression changed from curiousness to apprehension, but she held her peace.

"Since when do you know?" he inquired.

Her questioning expression returned. "Know what, master?"

Touching her mind through their connection, he replayed to her several pictures from the memories her subconscious had dredged up during her sleep. Realization of what had happened quickly hit home and a sheepish smile crept onto her face. "But I have always known," she replied, "from before it even happened. At least, what happened on _Mustafar_ , that is."

Sensing the unspoken question in her master's mind, she expounded further, "It was a vision. It was the first _Empire Day_. I had just turned nine and we were sitting in class. It was a powerful vision. I couldn't turn it off. I never could. And my heart went out to the young man I saw. It was so awful to see him mutilated like that, burning on the shore of that lava river. The last scene I saw was a hooded figure arriving, accompanied by some stormtroopers. And how they picked him up and took him away." She hesitated for a moment as her mind replayed the scene again before her inner eye. Then she continued, "I did some research in the days and weeks that followed. Thus, I found out the name of the young Jedi. And then I saw a report about the new right-hand man of the Emperor. It didn't take much to put two and two together."

A sudden suspicion overcame the Dark Lord. "Does the Emperor know?" At least, it would explain why his master had so readily suggested him starting a physical relationship with his young protégé. If she had already known what lay behind mask and bodysuit, it had been quite unlikely that she would be deterred by it. And after all, that his master had only been interested in producing an offspring that could one day take his place as Sith apprentice, he had found out some years later.

Serina nodded. "He saw it in my mind when he scrutinized me at the levee. There was really nothing I could withhold from him at that time." There was a slight hint in her voice that the situation had changed in the meantime, but Vader was not interested in that subject just now. He would take up that thought at another time. What else she knew and how she had attained that knowledge was of a much greater concern to him.

"And the events at the Temple?" he demanded.

At first, he could sense her reluctance to answer, but then she lowered her mental shields - back in place since she had returned to consciousness - and invited him to relive the memory together with her.

 _They had just reached their climax and were still reveling in the powers of the dark side, when a memory flitted through Vader's mind, not more than a flash of a room full of younglings slain at the Emperor's demand. But it registered in Serina's perception. And it made her curious. Therefore, she used her access codes to hack into the database at the Temple. The records had been sealed a long time ago, but they were still there. And she had learned to be quite inventive when she wanted to uncover something important to her. At long last, she discovered the records. Some showed the events at the entrance of the temple, others what happened in the High Council Chamber._

"I guess, if my Force sensitivity had come to the attention of any Jedi recruiter in my early childhood, I would have been there that day. You would have ended up killing me along with all the others at the Temple." She said it with a certain sadness to her voice but without any hint of accusation. "Darth Sidius ordered you to do it, didn't he?" She purposely used the Sith title of the Emperor. "But there was more to it than just following his orders."

For a moment, Vader's anger soared as he felt her employing her special talent - honed in the past twelve years to retrieve information from unsuspecting victims - to ease him into revealing his true motivation for the murderous rampage among the younglings at the Temple. The sensation of great pain, hurled through the connection at her, caused Serina to cry out, but it was due more to surprise at his action than to actual pain. "Don't ever do that again," Vader warned her. Since he could sense her immediate acquiescence, he decided on revealing to her what not even the Emperor was aware of.

"The Jedi would have never understood why I couldn't allow Mace Windu to kill Palpatine. I needed him, because of Padmé. He was the only one who was willing and able to help me save her. Thus, they had to die. And the children: it had never been right to take those children from their families. They would have become orphans. They were better off dead." For a moment, he hesitated.

"But the Emperor failed in saving Padmé, didn't he?" Serina pressed on. "I know what happened on _Mustafar_ before that fight with Obi-Wan. I've seen it in your mind. But I don't think you killed her there, no matter what the Emperor said. She died because she couldn't live with what you had become in order to save her."

"What else have you found out about me? Don't hold anything back." His voice held a dangerous undertone. He had always wondered about what had brought her to his side and had caused her to become such a pliable tool in his hands. Now was the time to find out her true motivation.

Serina could sense the dark determination in her master's mind. He would not rest until she had revealed everything she had learned about the man he had once been. Again, she lowered her shields and showed him what she had discovered. How she had found the diary of the dead Jedi. What she had learned about the Chosen One. That he had been a slave as a child and that Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan had found him and brought him to the Jedi Temple. That he had become the poster boy of the Clone Wars. That his mother had been captured by some Tusken Raiders and that she had died in their camp in his arms. How he had killed the whole camp in revenge for his mother. And that he had been married to the young senator from _Naboo_. That she had been pregnant and that he had had visions of her dying in childbirth.

"Some of those things your own mind showed me. Others I read in the diary and some I discovered through research. As I told you when we first met: you have always fascinated me. When I saw you in that first vision more than eighteen years ago, I felt drawn to you in a way I could not explain. When we met on _Circarpous IV_ , I knew you had become my destiny. And today I know I will continue on this path until the end."

For long moments, Vader considered what she had just revealed to him. Her feelings for him were even stronger than he had suspected. She certainly didn't blindly approve of everything he did or had ever done. But where Padmé's love had been limited to her perception of him as powerful, yet controlled by the principles of the Jedi Order, and had failed the moment he had turned to the dark side in order to save her, Serina's love had been born out of compassion for what had happened to him as a result of that decision. And she loved him without reservation, accepted whatever he considered necessary to achieve his goals without any accusation in her mind and was ready to forgive everything - even those failures he would never forgive himself.

It was this attitude, this loyalty that had, through the years, allowed her to avoid his anger in a quite uncanny way. And he also sensed a deep conviction in her that someday he would defeat the Emperor - whom she dreaded and yet loathed wholeheartedly for the wickedness she had perceived in him at the levee - and bring balance to the Force as he had been prophesied to do. But there was a deep worry in her connected with that conviction: the fear of him not surviving that confrontation.

Sensing that she had truly revealed to him everything he had requested to know, he allowed her to break the physical contact between them as she withdrew her hand. After she had given him the frequency the emergency signal had been sent on, he returned to the freighter to complete the repair of the generator. As he pondered what Serina had revealed to him, two thoughts emerged and lodged themselves in his soul: regardless of what else happened, he would try to keep the young woman at his side in the years to come. Hers was a loyalty unlikely to be found in anybody else. And if she was able to forgive even those failures he had not been able to forgive himself, perhaps one day he would be able to find peace again for his tortured soul. But that was a thought he could and would not allow or believe just yet. First, he would have to fulfill his own destiny.

* * *

When the approaching sunrise started to lighten the eastern skies, a sleek black vessel settled down only a few meters away from the crashed freighter. With the additional power of the repaired generator, it had only taken little over an hour to establish contact with the _StarLady_. By the time, Boba Fett arrived in his odd-shaped vessel, Vader had already carried Serina inside her ship. It would take a few more days for her broken leg and the torn muscles of her shoulder to heal. In order to speed up the process, Serina would use the hours until their arrival at _Imperial Center_ for further periods of healing meditation.

After having concluded his negotiations with Boba Fett regarding the bounties owed, he sent him off with the task to again locate the clone and keep a close eye on his actions. Then he entered the _StarLady_ and prepared the ship for lift-off.

As the sleek vessel passed through the thin cloud layer and accelerated toward the jump point into hyperspace, Vader arrived at a decision he had been contemplating since the moment they had touched down on the forsaken planet. With the Emperor fully aware of his private refuge on _Vjun_ and in the light of the developments of the past years, this unknown, out of the way world would be just perfect for a new final retreat, one he had no intention of ever revealing to his master.


End file.
